An Enduring Legacy
Former Secretary of State Warren Christopher dies
Associated Press, Wall Street Journal, NY Daily News, WAVY-TV10, news-press.com
3/19/2011
When he took over as secretary of state in the Clinton administration at age 68, Warren M. Christopher said he didn't expect to travel much. He went on to set a four-year mark for miles traveled by America's top diplomat.
The attorney turned envoy tirelessly traveled to Bosnia and the Middle East on peace missions during his 1993-1996 tenure — including some two dozen to Syria alone in a futile effort to promote a settlement with Israel.
After his work finished carrying out the Clinton administration agenda abroad, the longtime Californian returned home for an active life in local and national affairs and with his law firm.
Late Friday, the 85-year-old statesman died at his home in Los Angeles of complications from bladder and kidney cancer, said Sonja Steptoe of the law firm O'Melveny & Myers, where Christopher was a senior partner.
As he prepared to step down in 1996 as secretary "for someone else to pick up the baton," he said in an interview he was pleased to have played a role in making the United States safer.
Along with his peace efforts, he told The Associated Press that his proudest accomplishments included playing a role in promoting a ban on nuclear weapons tests and extension of curbs on proliferation of weapons technology.
The loyal Democrat also supervised the contested Florida recount for Al Gore in the 2000 presidential election. The Supreme Court, on a 5-4 vote, decided for George W. Bush.
While his efforts with Syria didn't bear fruit, he was more successful in the negotiations that produced a settlement in 1995 for Bosnia, ending a war among Muslims, Serbs and Croats that claimed 260,000 lives and drove another 1.8 million people from their homes.
Some critics said the administration had moved too slowly against the ethnic violence. Then-Rep. Frank McCloskey, an Indiana Democrat, called for Christopher's resignation and virtually accused the administration of ignoring genocide against Bosnian Muslims. A handful of State Department officials resigned in protest.
Christopher also gave top priority to supporting reform in Russia and expanding U.S. economic ties to Asia.
While Christopher often preferred a behind-the-scenes role, he also made news as deputy secretary of state in the Carter administration, conducting the tedious negotiations that gained the release in 1981 of 52 American hostages in Iran.
President Jimmy Carter awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award. "The best public servant I ever knew," Carter wrote in his memoirs.
In private life, Christopher also served. Among many other things, he chaired a commission that proposed reforms of the Los Angeles Police Department in the aftermath of the videotaped beating by police of motorist Rodney King in 1991. When four officers arrested for beating King were acquitted of most charges the following year Los Angeles erupted in days of deadly rioting.
In examining years of police records following the riots, the Christopher Commission found "a significant number of officers" routinely used excessive force.
"The department not only failed to deal with the problem group of officers but it often rewarded them with positive evaluations and promotions," according to the report.
Numerous reforms were eventually put in place, including limiting the police chief to two five-year terms and having the chief appointed and supervised by a civilian commission.
Christopher's calm intervention amid political turmoil prompted the Republicans to turn to an elder statesman of their own, James A. Baker III, to represent Bush in the election dispute.
Accepting Christopher's resignation as the nation's top diplomat, President Bill Clinton said Christopher "left the mark of his hand on history."
As Clinton considered a successor, Christopher offered the criteria he would apply if the choice was up to him.
"It would be somebody who has the capacity to provide forceful leadership, someone who has great tenacity, someone who has endurance and a lot of stamina," he said.
His travels became the stuff of diplomatic legend.
In the skies over Africa and approaching his 71st birthday in October 1996, Christopher set a new mark for miles traveled by a secretary of state over four years, the normal length of a presidential term: 704,487.
The crew on his Air Force jet presented him with a congratulatory cake.
Christopher overcame sleep deprivation, difficult negotiations with the likes of the late Syrian President Hafez Assad and nagging ulcers to keep his eye on American interests.
Always crisp, modest and polite, he drove home an agreement in his last year on the job to halt fighting in Lebanon between Israel and extremist Shiite guerrillas.
"We have achieved the goal of our mission, which was to achieve an agreement that will save lives and end the suffering of people on both sides of the Israeli-Lebanese border," Christopher said in Jerusalem, his weeklong mission a success.
Madeleine Albright stepped in for Clinton's second term and Christopher returned to his law firm of O'Melveny & Myers with Clinton's "deep gratitude" for his service and with president's playful description of Christopher as "the only man ever to eat M&Ms on Air Force One with a fork."
Unlike some who held the job, Christopher worked smoothly with the president's other senior advisers.
Although critics complained that the Clinton administration's foreign policy lacked dramatic initiatives, the poised and cautious Christopher indicated he was pleased with the results, especially with what he called the "triple play" of a NAFTA trade agreement with Canada and Mexico, the APEC expansion of U.S. economic ties to Pacific Rim nations, and the GATT accord on international tariffs and trade.
"Taking it overall, we've done very well on the major issues," he said at a news conference in 1993, during which he also cited U.S. support for economic and political reform in Russia and the "partnership for peace" proposal to expand the involvement of former Communist adversaries in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Christopher also looked back with gratitude on how far he had come from a childhood in Scranton, N.D., marked by bitter winters and modest circumstances. His father was a bank cashier who fell ill, and the family moved to Southern California during the Depression. After his father's death his mother supported the family of five children as a sales clerk.
An ensign in the U.S. Navy reserves, he was called up to active duty during World War II and served in the Pacific.
He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Southern California in 1945 and, after attending Stanford Law School, served as a clerk to Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas in 1949 and 1950.
In the late 1960s, he was a deputy attorney general in the administration of Lyndon Johnson.
In 2008, Christopher was co-chairman of a bipartisan panel that studied the recurring question of who under U.S. law should decide when the country goes to war. It proposed that the president be required to inform Congress of any plans to engage in "significant armed conflict" lasting longer than a week.
As a successful Los Angeles lawyer, Christopher had a seven-figure income, and a beach house in fashionable Santa Barbara.
He is survived by his wife Marie, and had four children in two marriages: Lynn, Scott, Thomas, and Kristen. Plans were pending for a private memorial service.
Warren Christopher, Former Secretary of State, Dies at 85
By ROBERT D. HERSHEY Jr.
New York Times
03/19/2011
Warren M. Christopher, secretary of state in President Clinton’s first term and the chief negotiator for the 1981 release of American hostages in Iran, died Friday night in Los Angeles. He was 85 and had been ill with kidney and bladder cancer.
The Associated Press reported that a spokeswoman for O’Melveny & Myers, the law firm where Mr. Christopher was a senior partner, confirmed his death.
Methodical and self-effacing, Mr. Christopher alternated for nearly five decades between top echelons of both the federal government and legal and political life in California. Among other things, he served as administration point man with Congress in winning ratification of Panama Canal treaties, presided over normalization of diplomatic relations with China and conducted repeated negotiations involving the Middle East and the Balkans.
At home, Mr. Christopher developed a reputation as a riot expert, investigating racial unrest in Detroit and in the Watts district of Los Angeles and later heading a 1991 commission that proposed major reforms of the Los Angeles Police Department following riots prompted by the beating of a black motorist, Rodney King.
As a political operative, he headed Mr. Clinton’s 1992 search committee for a vice presidential running mate, settling on Albert Gore, and subsequently directed the transition team of the president-elect, acting as an establishment counterweight on a team dominated by Arkansans new to the national scene. Eight years later, he directed for Mr. Gore, running for president, the search resulting in the selection of Senator Joseph I. Lieberman for the second spot on the Democratic ticket.
When the election stalemated, Mr. Christopher supervised the recount of disputed votes in Florida before George W. Bush emerged the winner by decision of the Supreme Court.
Though widely admired for his even-handedness and equanimity — he was once described as every husband’s ideal for a wife’s divorce lawyer — Mr. Christopher was accused by detractors of lacking passionate, big-picture diplomatic vision. Even friends and associates, to whom he was known as Chris or sometimes as “the Cardinal,” said they could not discern a guiding geopolitical philosophy, regarding him more a consummate tactician than a conceptualizer.
“If we were in a meeting on a crisis,” said a one-time State Department official who worked with him, “no one would turn to Chris and say, ‘You put together the strategy memo.’ But everyone would want him to read it because he’d be very good at implementing it,” The Times reported when he was named secretary of state.
Mr. Christopher appeared not to disagree. “My task had been to serve as steward, not proprietor, of an extraordinary public trust,” he wrote in “Chances of a Lifetime: A Memoir,” published in 2001.
But to criticism that President Clinton’s penchant for consultation and his secretary’s eagerness to listen made for seminars, not decisions, Mr. Christopher bristled. “The president’s desire to consult and my Norwegian taciturnity didn’t prevent us from making the right judgments,” he said of one occasion.
Warren Minor Christopher was born in the farming hamlet of Scranton, N.D., one of five children. His father, a local banker, suffered a stroke that the family believed was the result of overwork from his unsuccessful efforts keep the bank solvent during the Depression. The elder Christopher died four years later at 53 after the family had moved to California.
The unabashed New Deal liberalism that young Warren embraced during this formative period remained with him throughout his career even though he made his financial fortune representing I.B.M, Lockheed Martin Corporation and other major companies for O’Melveny & Myers, the most traditional and prestigious of Los Angeles law firms and which he eventually led.
Always impeccably dressed and unfailingly polite, Mr. Christopher told an interviewer while secretary of state that “I always thought that I would do things in a conservative way to maximize the progressiveness of my policy positions.”
While attending Hollywood High School he delivered newspapers several hours each day and, he told friends, he felt discriminated against because of his family’s straitened financial circumstances. His entered the University of Redlands at 16 but World War II intervened and he wound up in a naval officer program at the University of Southern California, soon to serve as an ensign in the naval reserve on an oil tanker in the Pacific.
Mr. Christopher, who as a diplomat came to embody a reluctance to use force, supported President Truman’s use of atomic bombs on Japan but later expressed doubt as to whether all alternatives had been fully explored.
After taking degrees from U.S.C. and Stanford University’s law school Mr. Christopher won a clerkship with William O. Douglas, drafting book chapters for the libertarian Supreme Court justice.
He joined O’Melveny & Myers in 1950, soon became an adviser and speech writer for California’s newly elected governor, Edmund G. (Pat) Brown, and was credited with coining the term “responsible liberalism.”
Mr. Christopher, made a partner at just 33 in 1958, was named by Governor Brown to the commission investigating the 1965 Watts riots. This brought him to the attention of President Johnson, who in 1967 brought him back to Washington, until January 1969, as deputy to Attorney General Ramsey Clark.
Here, as racial unrest troubleshooter in Detroit and Washington, he cultivated a relationship with Cyrus R. Vance, who, on being installed as secretary of state seven years later recommended that President Carter ask Mr. Christopher again to take leave from O’Melveny & Myers and become No. 2 at state.
The deputy’s first major task was the shepherd through the Senate the Panama Canal treaties that, in exchange for returning sovereignty to the Central American territory, gave the United States the right, if necessary, to reopen the canal militarily.
But it was his agonizing and prolonged negotiations for the release of 52 hostages held in the American Embassy in Tehran for more than a year after the 1979 revolution which Mr. Christopher’ tenure is most vividly remembered.
Late in 1980 Mr. Christopher shuttled between Algeria, which had become a mediator, and Washington and finally brokered a deal under which the hostages would be released in return for a return of frozen assets and a lifting of sanctions.
Even after the agreement was signed on the last full day of the Carter Presidency, Iran disavowed a vital element in it, Mr. Christopher wrote in a 2006 article about lessons learned in dealing with what he called the souk-like “bazaar behavior” of Iranian negotiators.
“To bring them back in line, I directed the pilot of my plane, on a telephone line that I knew was tapped, to warm up the engines. The Iranians quickly dropped their claim and a day later the hostages were released,” he wrote.
Mr. Christopher, usually reserved and unemotional, wept at the ultimate success.
During the captivity, an American military rescue operation failed and when Secretary Vance resigned in protest, President Carter passed over Mr. Christopher, the logical successor, in favor of Senator Edmund S. Muskie.
But Mr. Christopher loyally remained and a few months after the hostages were released pointed to what he said was the value of patient negotiation.
“I am thankful to have served a nation so quietly strong that it could preserve its honor, not by retaliation or vengeance, but by preserving the lives of the hostages,” he said.
After giving way to Madeleine Albright after one term as secretary of state, Mr. Christopher again returned to O’Melveny & Myers and civic and political life in California. He served as president of Stanford’s board of trustees and was a longtime director of the Southern California Edison Company.
He occasionally spoke out on international issues, urging in an op-ed article in late 2002 that President Bush rethink “his fixation on attacking Iraq” and turn his attention to what he considered graver threats, such as North Korea.
“Even if the optimistic predictions of quick victory prove to be accurate,” he wrote more than two months before the invasion, “we would then find ourselves absorbed with the occupation of Iraq and efforts to impose democracy on the fractious elements of that country.”
Mr. Christopher is survived by his wife of 54 years, the former Marie Wyllis, a former teacher, and by their three children and five grandchildren. He had a fourth child from an earlier marriage.
Warren Christopher, Top U.S. Diplomat for Democrats, Dies at 85
Nancy Moran
Bloomberg Businessweek
March 19, 2011 Warren Christopher, the lawyer turned diplomat whose discretion and judgment earned him appointments under three Democratic U.S. presidents, including as Bill Clinton’s first secretary of state, has died. He was 85.
He died yesterday of complications from bladder and kidney cancer at his home in California, according to a statement from O’Melveny & Myers, the Los Angeles-based law firm where he was senior partner.
Reticent and unwavering, Christopher refocused U.S. foreign policy on the Middle East during Clinton’s first term. With Richard Holbrooke, who died in December, Christopher brokered the 1995 Dayton agreement ending the war in Bosnia. He restored diplomatic relations with Vietnam and pushed for the expansion of NATO to include countries of central and Eastern Europe.
“Warren was a diplomat’s diplomat -- talented, dedicated and exceptionally wise,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a statement today. “As well as anyone in his generation, he understood the subtle interplay of national interests, fundamental values and personal dynamics that drive diplomacy.”
President Barack Obama saluted him in a statement as “a resolute pursuer of peace.”
While Christopher’s half-century career earned him the status of elder statesman, critics viewed his reserved style and loyalty to Clinton as weaknesses.
Interviewed in November 1996, Washington Post columnist Jim Hoagland said Christopher had been “a man without an agenda of his own” who saw himself as “the president’s lawyer,” and William Hyland, the longtime editor of Foreign Affairs magazine, called the administration’s foreign policy “a jumbled mess.”
Regret Over Rwanda
In 2005, while visiting a Rwandan genocide memorial, Clinton expressed regret for his “personal failure” in preventing the 1994 killing of some 800,000 ethnic Tutsis at the hands of Hutu rebels.
In a 1981 commencement address at Stanford University, Christopher said: “Most talking is not glamorous. Often it is tedious. It can be excruciating and exhausting. But talking can also tame conflict, lift the human condition, and move us close to the ideal of peace.”
Again and again throughout his legal career, Christopher took time off to advise public figures.
In the wake of the 1991 beating of black motorist Rodney King by white Los Angeles police officers -- whose acquittal the following year would spark riots -- Mayor Tom Bradley appointed Christopher as chairman of an independent commission that undertook a broad review of the police department’s structure and practices. Voters overwhelmingly approved reforms of the department proposed by his commission, including the imposition of a limit of two five-year terms for chiefs.
Florida Recount
After returning to Los Angeles in 1997, Christopher rejoined the international law firm of O’Melveny & Myers as its senior partner. He returned to the political fray in the weeks after the 2000 presidential election, serving as Al Gore’s top representative in Florida during the legal and political debate over recounting ballots. Gore would concede the election to Republican George W. Bush after the U.S. Supreme Court, voting 5-4, ended the recounting of ballots in Florida.
Christopher’s Republican counterpart in the Florida fight was former secretary of state James Baker. Five years later they joined as co-chairman of a commission that proposed changes to the War Powers Act to promote consultation between the president and Congress before troops are sent into “significant armed conflict.” The recommendations have not been implemented.
Move to California
Warren Minor Christopher was born on Oct. 27, 1925, in the North Dakota prairie town of Scranton. He was the fourth of five children whose father, Ernest, managed the local bank during the Great Depression.
Christopher’s family moved to Hollywood, California, in 1939, two years after his father suffered a massive stroke. He graduated from Hollywood High School in 1942 and attended the University of Redlands on a debate scholarship.
He enlisted in the Navy in October of 1942 and reported to the University of Southern California’s Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps in 1944. He finished USC early, earning a degree in finance with honors in February 1945, then served aboard the aircraft-refueling tanker USS Tomahawk in the Pacific during World War II.
He graduated in 1949 from Stanford Law School, where he was president of its first law review and elected a member of the Order of the Coif legal honor society.
Clerk to Douglas
Christopher became Stanford’s first graduate to clerk for a Supreme Court Justice. Justice William O. Douglas’s advice that he “get out in the stream of history, and swim as fast as you can” helped propel him into a career saddling the worlds of law and public service. It also provided the title for Christopher’s 1998 book, “In the Stream of History: Shaping Foreign Policy for a New Era.”
After his clerkship, Christopher joined O’Melveny & Myers in 1950. He was made a partner in 1958 and later served as the firm’s chairman and senior partner.
He took leave from the firm to advise California Governor Edmund “Pat” Brown during his first months in office in 1959 and during the 1965 riots in the Los Angeles community of Watts.
In June 1967, he was named deputy attorney general, the Justice Department’s second-ranking official, under President Lyndon B. Johnson. He participated in the administration’s decision to send federal troops to Detroit to quell race riots. That October, he helped coordinate security at the Pentagon during a Vietnam War protest that drew more than 100,000 demonstrators.
Hostages in Iran
After another stint at O’Melveny & Myers, starting in January 1969, Christopher served from 1977 to 1981 as deputy secretary of state under President Jimmy Carter. He led negotiations for the release of the 52 Americans taken from the U.S. Embassy in Iran and held for the 14 months of Carter’s one term. The hostages finally were granted freedom on the day that Carter turned over the presidency to Ronald Reagan in January 1981.
“I’ve never felt happier than watching those 52 people come down off that plane,” Christopher told Charlie Rose in a 2001 interview. “I had selected some of them to go to Iran, chosen them because I thought they were strong people, and I felt a special responsibility and I was kind of obsessed by it frankly -- getting them out -- and when they came out, I was so relieved.”
After the Carter presidency, Christopher served as chairman of O’Melveny & Myers from 1982 to 1992, when he was named co- chairman of the vice presidential search committee for Bill Clinton, the Arkansas governor who had clinched the Democratic presidential nomination. That search culminated in the selection Gore, a senator from Tennessee.
Post-Cold War
Christopher went on to lead Clinton’s presidential transition team and was named the 63rd U.S. secretary of state. He told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that his goal was to define “a strategy for U.S. leadership after the Cold War.”
During Christopher’s tenure, from January 1993 to January 1997, the Clinton administration mobilized international economic support for Russia and the Ukraine, pressured China to improve its human-rights record and promoted NATO’s Partnership for Peace program, which aimed to add new members to the alliance without alienating Russia. The administration also helped restore Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power following a coup in 1994.
Christopher won the trust of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who in August 1993 called him during his vacation in California to notify him of a breakthrough in peace talks with the Palestinians in Oslo, Norway.
Oslo Accords
Less than a month later, on Sept. 13, Christopher oversaw the signing of the Oslo accords between Rabin and Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat in Washington. The treaty, under which the PLO recognized the state of Israel and Israel acknowledged the PLO as the government of the Palestinian people, established a framework for achieving a lasting peace between the two sides.
Dignified and slow to anger, Christopher could also be quick to call a foreign leader’s bluff.
In his memoir, he criticized Syria’s Hafez al-Assad as having missed an opportunity to make progress toward a Syrian- Israeli peace before Rabin’s 1995 assassination because Assad was “immobilized by his ingrained mistrust of Israel.” He also described the late Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic as a “wily tactician but dreadful strategist” who came to power by “playing to Serbian nationalism.”
For Clinton’s second term, Christopher was succeeded by Madeleine Albright, the first female U.S. secretary of state.
Silence and Confidence
Known for his quiet demeanor, Christopher described the importance of being a good listener in his 2001 memoir, “Chances of a Lifetime.”
“Silence, once associated with discretion, begets confidence as well as confidences,” he wrote. “I learned that people also tend to read wisdom from silence -- even when silence means only that you know nothing about what they are talking about.”
He called his time serving in the Clinton administration “the greatest four years of my life.”
“I think we succeeded in doing some positive things. I think perhaps we left the country a little better than we found it,” Christopher told Rose in 2001.
He said world diplomacy played a role in the U.S. economic successes under Clinton, a president who “really brought an economic dimension to foreign policy in a way that nobody else has.”
Christopher is survived by his wife, Marie, four children and five grandchildren.
Warren Christopher dies at 85; former secretary of State's quiet diplomacy was prized from Washington to L.A.
Warren Christopher's tenacity and decorum helped him broker the release of American hostages from Iran for President Carter and secure the Bosnian peace agreement for President Clinton. He led an investigation into the LAPD after the Rodney King beating that resulted in key reforms.
Elaine Woo
Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune
March 19, 2011, 7:09 a.m. Warren Christopher, the former secretary of State and eminence grise of the Democratic Party whose achievements in a wide-ranging public career include brokering the Bosnian peace agreement for the Clinton administration and leading an independent investigation of the Los Angeles Police Department that brought important reforms after a notorious police beating, has died. He was 85.
Christopher died Friday at his home in Los Angeles of complications from bladder and kidney cancer, said Kathy Osborne, his executive assistant at the law firm O'Melveny & Myers, where Christopher was a senior partner.
Called "the best public servant I ever knew" by President Carter, Christopher was known as a skilled negotiator whose tenacity, decorum and discretion were prized traits in crises.
As deputy secretary of State in the Carter administration, he played a pivotal role in securing the release of the Americans held hostage in Iran. As secretary of State for President Clinton, he kept warring parties at the table during the Dayton, Ohio, peace talks between the Bosnians and Serbs. After returning to private life, he served as Vice President Al Gore's emissary in the Florida vote recount that settled the disputed 2000 presidential election.
When Los Angeles fractured along racial lines after the 1991 police beating of Rodney G. King, Christopher was drafted to head the Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department, which quickly became known as the Christopher Commission. Under his leadership, the 100-day inquiry produced a plan for the department's overhaul, including a strong call to replace Chief Daryl F. Gates, who later resigned.
The unity of the commission -- which included members selected by Gates and his main antagonist, Mayor Tom Bradley -- was in large measure a testament to its self-effacing chairman, whose quiet diplomacy produced results.
"Most talking is not glamorous," he once said. "Often it is tedious. It can be excruciating and exhausting. But talking can also tame conflict, lift the human condition, and move us close to the ideal of peace."
Unfailingly courteous and calm, Christopher was known for keeping his emotions in check under the most trying circumstances. He sometimes told the story of the time he was a deputy attorney general in the Lyndon Johnson administration and the president called him in the middle of the night. He lunged for the phone and broke his toe but concealed the accident — and the throbbing pain— for the entire conversation.
That was a small reminder of the stamina that went on public display as secretary of State, when Christopher logged more miles in pursuit of American objectives than any previous secretary in a four-year period. That record was built in part by his efforts to revive Middle East peace talks, which led him to make 35 trips to Israel and 24 to Syria.
But the lean, sober-faced diplomat was often portrayed by critics as weak and ineffectual. During his four years in the Clinton Cabinet he was faulted by Washington insiders for failing to articulate a coherent vision for American foreign policy in the post-Cold War era.
One of his sharpest critics, former national security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, said Christopher's weakness was his desire to "litigate issues endlessly, to shy away from the unavoidable ingredient of force in dealing with contemporary international realities and to have an excessive faith that all issues can be resolved by compromise." His skeptics called him "Dean Rusk without the charisma," comparing him to the Johnson-era secretary of State who was also known for his low-key style.
After every stint in public service, he returned to O'Melveny & Myers, the influential, old-line Los Angeles law firm where he began his career six decades ago and which he eventually led as chairman. He was credited with expanding the firm's international operations as well as its civic engagement, especially through pro-bono projects.
Warren Minor Christopher, the fourth of five children, was born on Oct. 27, 1925, in Scranton, N.D., a prairie town settled at the turn of the 20th century by Scandinavian and German immigrants.
His mother, Catherine, helped the needy, including hoboes who found their way to the family's doorstep from freight cars that ran near their home. She always declined the men's offers to work in exchange for supper because she believed "that our relatively good fortune was something to be shared, not bartered," Christopher wrote in "Chances of a Lifetime," his 2001 memoir.
His father, Ernest, managed the local bank and was well-liked despite having what Christopher described as the demeanor of "a taciturn Norwegian Lutheran." He said later that he was profoundly affected by his father's stories about how the Depression had ruined many farmers in town and by his struggles to resist foreclosing on their mortgages. Christopher said the strains of trying to keep the bank afloat while many of his friends and neighbors went under led to his father's incapacitating stroke in 1937 when he was only 49. Ernest Christopher died five years later.
What he learned from his father was that "you do not have to make a public display of compassion to be a compassionate person," Christopher wrote in his memoir. "The human scenes I witnessed in the flat, dry North Dakota plains while at my father's side may account more than anything else for the tilt of my social and political concerns in the direction of the unfortunate."
Hoping that a warmer climate would speed her husband's recovery, Catherine Christopher moved the family to California in 1939 and went to work as a sales clerk. Warren earned money delivering papers for the Hollywood Citizen-News and excelled on the debate team at Hollywood High School.
At 16 he entered the University of Redlands on a debate scholarship, but transferred after a year to the Naval Officer Program at USC. He graduated in 1945 as an ensign after completing an accelerated course of study that combined naval science with general academic classes. He served on an oil tanker in the Pacific theater as World War II was winding down.
In 1946, he entered Stanford, where he was chosen to serve as editor of the first Stanford law review. In 1949 he became the first Stanford law student to be placed in a clerkship with a U.S. Supreme Court justice.
During his year with legendary Justice William O. Douglas, he helped craft opinions on cases challenging the separate-but-equal education doctrine that would influence the court's language in the historic Brown vs. Board of Education decision of 1954. Douglas became an important mentor, whose advice to Christopher was to "get out into the stream of history and swim as fast as you can."
In 1950 he became one of the first Democrats to join the conservative O'Melveny & Myers law firm. Eight years later, he became a partner and began his political ascent as a part-time researcher and speechwriter for then-California Atty. Gen. Edmund G. "Pat" Brown, who was running for governor. After Brown's landslide victory over U.S. Sen. William F. Knowland, Christopher joined him in Sacramento as special counsel. He wrote Brown's inaugural speech and coined the phrase "responsible liberalism" to describe Brown's political philosophy.
In 1965, Brown tapped him to assemble and serve as vice chairman of a bipartisan panel to study the causes of the riots that had inflamed the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles that year. Named the McCone Commission after its chairman, Republican businessman and former CIA Director John McCone, it produced a report that faulted authorities for moving too slowly to quell the violence and urged some modest police reforms. Watts would provide the first of several opportunities that Christopher would have to examine urban violence firsthand.
In the summer of 1967 he joined the Johnson administration as deputy to Atty. Gen. Ramsey Clark. He had been on the job only two months when rioting broke out in Detroit. Dispatched to that city to evaluate the situation with then-Deputy Secretary of Defense Cyrus Vance, he advised President Johnson to send in the 82nd Airborne to shore up the Michigan National Guard. Forty-three people died in the disruptions there.
Christopher later helped calm riots in Washington and Chicago, where he coordinated efforts by the Army and local authorities to control disruptions by anti-Vietnam War protesters at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. He called the violence that unfolded there "essentially a police riot" and prosecuted Chicago police officers charged with brutality.
He also helped lead the Johnson administration's push for the Civil Rights Act of 1968. A follow-up to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, it prevented discrimination in the sale, rental and financing of housing and was, according to Clark, "by far the most difficult and potentially far-reaching of all civil rights legislation." He described Christopher as a "major force" behind its passage.
A decade later, when Vance became Jimmy Carter's secretary of State, he recruited Christopher to serve as his deputy. Christopher, who was confirmed in 1977, was entrusted with some of the Carter administration's most delicate foreign policy assignments, from leading the effort to win congressional approval of the Panama Canal treaties to ending formal ties with the Chinese Nationalist government on Taiwan and negotiating a framework for future relations.
The full measure of his talent at negotiation was highlighted by the crisis that developed on Nov. 4, 1979, when Iranian students, angry over U.S. sheltering of Iran's deposed shah, seized the American Embassy in Tehran and took 52 officials and staffers hostage. The drama would span Carter's last 18 months in office, the lowest point of which was a botched helicopter rescue that left eight American servicemen dead.
Vance, who had disapproved of the mission, stepped down and Carter named Sen. Edmund S. Muskie (D-Maine) as his successor. Christopher was deeply disappointed at being passed over, but decided that he had to stay. "I had accepted the job of deputy without reservation or promise of advancement," he reflected years later. "To leave now out of disappointment at my failure to advance would be to elevate ambition over commitment, pride over duty."
He soon found himself in a crucial role.
It began in September 1980, when West Germany relayed a secret message to the Carter administration that a high-level Iranian official wanted to meet in Bonn with a senior American official. The Iranian was Sadegh Tabatabai, a member of Ayatollah Khomeini's inner circle. Tabatabai's overture to the U.S. was the first time in the then-10-month-old hostage crisis that an Iranian with direct ties to Iran's leadership had asked for a meeting. Carter sent Christopher to Bonn and put him in charge of negotiations. Freeing the hostages would consume Christopher's life for the next four months.
The Algerian government agreed to mediate the cumbersome negotiations, which had to be translated into three languages — Farsi, French and English — in order for all parties to communicate. With Iran demanding $14 billion in frozen assets and $10 billion of the shah's wealth that it claimed was being held in the U.S. — amounts that stunned U.S. officials, whose estimates were much smaller — Christopher employed a small army of bankers and lawyers to locate the funds and surmount the legal and bureaucratic hurdles blocking their release.
By early January, with only a few weeks left in the Carter presidency, Christopher decided to streamline the process by flying to Algiers with a core group of aides. He directed the final 13 days of the negotiations from the Algerian capital.
What Carter administration officials later described as the largest financial transaction in history, involving an intricately choreographed series of wire transfers totaling almost $8 billion and involving 14 banks — including the U.S. Federal Reserve, the Central Bank of Algeria and the Bank of England — was concluded in the last hours of the Carter presidency.
As the architect of the agreement, Christopher had taken "what was by almost any standard a policy disaster for the United States and turned it into a triumph of U.S. interests," Gary Sick, the principal White house aide on Iran, told The Times in 1993.
By the time the hostages were flown out of Iran, Carter had been out of office for 35 minutes. Christopher was on the tarmac in Algiers when their plane landed and greeted each of the hostages by name.
"He was the interlocutor between the White House and Iran," Carter said of his loyal deputy years later, "and it was his determination and his courage and his ability as a negotiator and his wisdom that resulted in the release of every American hostage, safe and free."
When Christopher went to dinner at a Washington restaurant the day after the hostages' release, fellow diners applauded him. Their overt display of gratitude stunned the shy deputy, who had to be told that the applause was for him.
"What struck me then, as it does now," Christopher later wrote, "is how very strange, nearly magical, life can be. Who could have predicted only nine months before that one of the luckiest things ever to happen to me would be not being named secretary of state? Not finding myself in a job that would have kept my feet firmly planted in Washington?
"The lesson I draw from this chapter of my life is simple, and a little ironic: the chance of a lifetime is not necessarily the next rung up the ladder. It may be the one on which you already stand."
By 1991, Christopher was an elder statesman of Los Angeles with little ostensible need for more high-stakes headaches. But on March 3, an LAPD car chase ended in the brutal beating of Rodney King by several officers. An witness captured the beating on videotape, which showed other officers standing by and doing nothing to stop the vicious attack by their colleagues. Most of the officers involved in the incident were white; King was black.
When Christopher viewed the videotape two days later, he was "sickened and angry by what I saw." When he urged Bradley to launch an independent investigation, the mayor insisted that Christopher chair it. Against the advice of some of his closest friends, he agreed.
Some skeptics wondered whether the chairman of an establishment law firm would be bold enough to call for radical changes. The answer came 100 days later in a scathing 228-page report that found that a significant number of Los Angeles police officers condoned racism and used excessive force.
The commission recommended sweeping changes, including an overhaul of the department's disciplinary system and a move toward community policing. But its most controversial recommendation was that Gates, who had served 13 years as chief, step down.
The call for Gates' resignation had been unanimous, remarkable considering that what became known as the Christopher Commission had begun as two separate panels — one appointed by Bradley and the other by the embattled chief. Christopher brought the two bodies together. He presided over five fractious community hearings and a staff of 50 lawyers and 60 accountants who interviewed 300 current and former officers and reviewed 1 million pages of documents.
Throughout the investigation, Christopher displayed "a grasp of the sociological context," Stanley Sheinbaum, the Police Commission president who engineered Gates' departure with the help of the Christopher Commission report, told The Times in 1993. "I don't know how you would define vision, but he sure got an understanding of the context of the problem that was better than anyone's."
Christopher later led the successful campaign to pass Charter Amendment F, which revamped LAPD management, including the system for hiring and firing the chief and disciplining officers.
Christopher is survived by his second wife, the former Marie Wyllis, whom he married in 1956 after his first marriage ended in divorce; and their three children, Scott, Thomas and Kristen. He also is survived by a daughter from his first marriage, Lynn Collins; and five grandchildren.
elaine.woo@latimes.com
Copyright © 2011, Los Angeles Times
Warren Christopher, U.S. negotiator, dies at 85: report
John O'Callaghan
Reuters, Yahoo! News
3/19/2011
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Former U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher, who helped bring peace to Bosnia and negotiated for the release of American hostages in Iran, died on Saturday , CNN reported. He was 85.
CNN said Christopher died in California of complications from kidney and bladder cancer.
As the top American statesman under President Bill Clinton, Christopher was a behind-the-scenes negotiator. Often called the "stealth" secretary of state, Christopher was known for his understated, self-effacing manner.
Warren Christopher, 1925-2011
James Fallows
The Atlantic
3/19/2011
Let me break into the sequence of guest voices here to express sadness at news that Warren Christopher has just died, at age 85.
He is best known as the first Secretary of State during the Clinton Administration, and his public image was of a very careful, even colorless person. I had a much more vivid and warmly positive impression of him. Even when I was a child he was a well-known figure in my home town, because he had attended the local college, the University of Redlands, under the Navy's V-12 program, before wartime service and transferring to USC to finish college. He had gone on to Stanford Law School and a Supreme Court clerkship for Justice William O. Douglas, before becoming a prominent California legal and political figure by the mid-1960s. He kept up contacts in our little town, including with my dad, who was an exact contemporary and had become a Navy doctor through the V-12 program in Pennsylvania before moving west.
During the last two years of the LBJ Administration, when 39-year-old Ramsey Clark became Attorney General, Warren Christopher, just slightly older, was his Deputy. That was the era when the Justice Department was still generally seen as a "progressive" force in domestic affairs, as the enforcement arm of desegregation and civil-rights rulings. I always understood that Warren Christopher played a large part in that effort. Shortly before LBJ left office, Christopher came to speak at Harvard and also met with mainly suspicious and hostile staffers on the student newspaper, including me. In those days anyone from the Administration could expect to be shouted down about Vietnam policy, and Christopher was. But then he patiently made the case for the historic importance of LBJ's efforts to address poverty and racial injustices. It was an illustration of how his temperament, sometimes criticized in his SecState years as phlegmatic or dull, could also be seen as unflappable and determined. Not coincidentally, he was a Depression-era kid from a tiny settlement in North Dakota. (The portrait below, by Ann Linton Hodge, was commissioned by North Dakota on the occasion of his receiving the state's "Rough Rider Award.") At several points Christopher and Richard Holbrooke both worked in the State Department, with Christopher higher up in the organization chart. Each had influence, from just about opposite extremes in personality type.
Christopher did other stoic things. He was Deputy Secretary of State during the Carter Administration. In that role, he was sent to bring the bad news to Taiwan that the United States no longer considered it a real country, as part of the historic "normalization" of relations with mainland China. One official U.S. account of Christopher's motorcade into Taipei in 1978 describes it thus
>>The motorcade, en route from the airport to the Grand Hotel, was surrounded by a mob of young people who assaulted the cars. Described in the press as "the most violent youth outburst ever experienced here," the youths pasted mud, splashed paint, threw eggs, placed national flags on the limousines, stepped on the roofs and hoods of the cars, and broke the glass in several [cars]... Deputy Secretary Christopher was in a car with Ambassador Unger; they finally got to the Ambassador's residence. There were no personal injuries except some cuts from the breaking glass.<<
This was the kind of thing which made me consider him "strong" rather than "dull." After the rioting in Los Angeles following the Rodney King case, he led the "Christopher Commission," which found that "significant numbers" of LAPD officials routinely used excessive violence against civilians, especially non-whites. He was the head of Bill Clinton's presidential transition team, the chairman of various boards (including Stanford's), and overall a civic presence. He was a good, modest, wryly humorous, public-spirited and public-minded man, who should be remembered.
Warren Christopher, Clinton's top envoy, dies at 85
Politico, Philly News
3/19/11
LOS ANGELES —Former Secretary of State Warren Christopher, who worked for peace in Bosnia and the Mideast in the Clinton administration, has died in Los Angeles.
When he took over as secretary of state in the Clinton administration at age 68, Christopher said he didn’t expect to travel much. He went on to set a four-year mark for miles traveled by America’s top diplomat.
The attorney turned envoy tirelessly traveled to Bosnia and the Middle East on peace missions during his 1993-1996 tenure — including some two dozen to Syria alone in a futile effort to promote a settlement with Israel.
After his work finished carrying out the Clinton administration agenda abroad, the longtime Californian returned home for an active life in local and national affairs and with his law firm.
Late Friday, the 85-year-old statesman died at his home in Los Angeles of complications from bladder and kidney cancer, said Sonja Steptoe of the law firm O’Melveny & Myers, where Christopher was a senior partner.
As he prepared to step down in 1996 as secretary “for someone else to pick up the baton,” he said in an interview he was pleased to have played a role in making the United States safer.
Along with his peace efforts, he told The Associated Press that his proudest accomplishments included playing a role in promoting a ban on nuclear weapons tests and extension of curbs on proliferation of weapons technology.
The loyal Democrat also supervised the contested Florida recount for Al Gore in the 2000 presidential election. The Supreme Court, on a 5-4 vote, decided for George W. Bush.
While his efforts with Syria didn’t bear fruit, he was more successful in the negotiations that produced a settlement in 1995 for Bosnia, ending a war among Muslims, Serbs and Croats that claimed 260,000 lives and drove another 1.8 million people from their homes.
Some critics said the administration had moved too slowly against the ethnic violence. Then-Rep. Frank McCloskey, an Indiana Democrat, called for Christopher’s resignation and virtually accused the administration of ignoring genocide against Bosnian Muslims. A handful of State Department officials resigned in protest.
Christopher also gave top priority to supporting reform in Russia and expanding U.S. economic ties to Asia.
While Christopher often preferred a behind-the-scenes role, he also made news as deputy secretary of state in the Carter administration, conducting the tedious negotiations that gained the release in 1981 of 52 American hostages in Iran.
President Jimmy Carter awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award. “The best public servant I ever knew,” Carter wrote in his memoirs.
In private life, Christopher also served. Among many other things, he chaired a commission that proposed reforms of the Los Angeles Police Department in the aftermath of the videotaped beating by police of motorist Rodney King in 1991. When four officers arrested for beating King were acquitted of most charges the following year Los Angeles erupted in days of deadly rioting.
In examining years of police records following the riots, the Christopher Commission found “a significant number of officers” routinely used excessive force.
“The department not only failed to deal with the problem group of officers but it often rewarded them with positive evaluations and promotions,” according to the report.
Numerous reforms were eventually put in place, including limiting the police chief to two five-year terms and having the chief appointed and supervised by a civilian commission.
Christopher’s calm intervention amid political turmoil prompted the Republicans to turn to an elder statesman of their own, James A. Baker III, to represent Bush in the election dispute.
Accepting Christopher’s resignation as the nation’s top diplomat, President Bill Clinton said Christopher “left the mark of his hand on history.”
As Clinton considered a successor, Christopher offered the criteria he would apply if the choice was up to him.
“It would be somebody who has the capacity to provide forceful leadership, someone who has great tenacity, someone who has endurance and a lot of stamina,” he said.
His travels became the stuff of diplomatic legend.
In the skies over Africa and approaching his 71st birthday in October 1996, Christopher set a new mark for miles traveled by a secretary of state over four years, the normal length of a presidential term: 704,487.
The crew on his Air Force jet presented him with a congratulatory cake.
Christopher overcame sleep deprivation, difficult negotiations with the likes of the late Syrian President Hafez Assad and nagging ulcers to keep his eye on American interests.
Always crisp, modest and polite, he drove home an agreement in his last year on the job to halt fighting in Lebanon between Israel and extremist Shiite guerrillas.
“We have achieved the goal of our mission, which was to achieve an agreement that will save lives and end the suffering of people on both sides of the Israeli-Lebanese border,” Christopher said in Jerusalem, his weeklong mission a success.
Madeleine Albright stepped in for Clinton’s second term and Christopher returned to his law firm of O’Melveny & Myers with Clinton’s “deep gratitude” for his service and with president’s playful description of Christopher as “the only man ever to eat M&Ms on Air Force One with a fork.”
Unlike some who held the job, Christopher worked smoothly with the president’s other senior advisers.
Although critics complained that the Clinton administration’s foreign policy lacked dramatic initiatives, the poised and cautious Christopher indicated he was pleased with the results, especially with what he called the “triple play” of a NAFTA trade agreement with Canada and Mexico, the APEC expansion of U.S. economic ties to Pacific Rim nations, and the GATT accord on international tariffs and trade.
“Taking it overall, we’ve done very well on the major issues,” he said at a news conference in 1993, during which he also cited U.S. support for economic and political reform in Russia and the “partnership for peace” proposal to expand the involvement of former Communist adversaries in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Christopher also looked back with gratitude on how far he had come from a childhood in Scranton, N.D., marked by bitter winters and modest circumstances. His father was a bank cashier who fell ill, and the family moved to Southern California during the Depression. After his father’s death his mother supported the family of five children as a sales clerk.
An ensign in the U.S. Navy reserves, he was called up to active duty during World War II and served in the Pacific.
He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Southern California in 1945 and, after attending Stanford Law School, served as a clerk to Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas in 1949 and 1950.
In the late 1960s, he was a deputy attorney general in the administration of Lyndon Johnson.
In 2008, Christopher was co-chairman of a bipartisan panel that studied the recurring question of who under U.S. law should decide when the country goes to war. It proposed that the president be required to inform Congress of any plans to engage in “significant armed conflict” lasting longer than a week.
As a successful Los Angeles lawyer, Christopher had a seven-figure income, and a beach house in fashionable Santa Barbara.
He is survived by his wife Marie, and had four children in two marriages: Lynn, Scott, Thomas, and Kristen. Plans were pending for a private memorial service.
Former Secretary of State Warren Christopher dies
Leslie Tripp
CNN
March 19, 2011
Warren Christopher said his views about human rights were shaped by trips he took with his father during the Depression.
Washington (CNN) -- Former Secretary of State Warren Christopher died Friday from complications of kidney and bladder cancer, his family said. He was 85.
As America's chief diplomat for four years during President Bill Clinton's administration, Christopher "eschewed confrontation in favor of negotiation with friend and foe alike," according to a profile posted on the State Department website.
"The cause of peace and freedom and decency have never had a more tireless or tenacious advocate," Clinton said in 1996 after Christopher announced he was stepping down from the post.
In 1981, Christopher received the Medal of Freedom -- the nation's highest civilian award -- for his role in negotiating the release of 52 American hostages in Iran while serving as deputy secretary of state for President Jimmy Carter.
Christopher -- known as "Chris" to his friends -- also oversaw the negotiation of the 1995 Dayton Agreement that ended the Bosnian war.
"Literally, until the last minute the outcome was in doubt. Our negotiators had their bags packed and were ready to head home without an agreement. But Chris refused to give up," Clinton recalled in his 1996 remarks. "And the force of his will finally convinced the Balkan leaders to give in to the logic of peace."
Clinton went on to praise Christopher's efforts in the Middle East peace process and helping build democracy in Haiti.
Issuing a statement from Paris, where she is attending a summit over the crisis in Libya, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she was deeply saddened by the passing of her predecessor.
"The longer I spend in this job, the deeper my appreciation grows for the giants who came before," she said. "Warren was a diplomat's diplomat -- talented, dedicated and exceptionally wise."
She credited Christopher helping establish diplomatic relations with China, overseeing the expansion of NATO, and working for peace in the Middle East. She said he "championed human rights around the world."
"In addition to being a great statesman, Warren was also a dear friend," she said. "I relied on his advice and experience over many years."
Christopher also played a significant leadership role on several domestic issues, particularly in the state of California, where he was chairman and later senior partner of the O'Melveny & Myers law firm.
He chaired a commission investigating the Rodney King assault and subsequent riots in Los Angeles, and served on the California Hate Crimes Task Force, according to a biography provided by the firm.
His legal career began with a clerkship with U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, who advised Christopher to "get out into the stream of history and swim as fast as you can," the law firm's biography said.
That idea stuck with Christopher, who later said "being Secretary of State is to take part in history's relay race" after announcing his plans to step down from the post.
Christopher was born in Scranton, North Dakota. He served as a Naval ensign in during World War II. He graduated from the University of Southern California in 1945 and graduated from Stanford Law School in 1949.
In a 2009 interview, he told the Los Angeles Times that his views about human rights were shaped by the trips he took with his father, who was a clerk for foreclosure sales in North Dakota during the Great Depression.
"On the way there, he would talk to me about the hardship the farmers faced. That certainly was the beginning of it for me. It's a constant struggle to try to improve the lot of people around the world," he said. "A lot of people live in poverty and deprivation, and we have to be constantly alert to do what we can, to always feel we have done as much as we should."
He is survived by his wife, four children and five grandchildren, the law firm's biography said. Plans for a private memorial are pending.
CNN's Leslie Tripp contributed to this report
Former Secretary of State Warren Christopher died Friday due to complications from kidney and bladder cancer. He was 85.
Christopher served three presidents before returning to Los Angeles to help run the global law firm O'Melveny & Myers. Christopher was secretary of state during Bill Clinton's first term. He served Lyndon Johnson as deputy attorney general and Jimmy Carter as deputy secretary of state.
Clinton happened to be in Los Angeles Friday to receive the William O. Douglas Award at Public Counsel Law Center's annual gala at the Beverly Hilton, where Barbra Streisand introduced the former president.
The lifelong Democrat was known as a calm and even-handed politician. In his 2001 autobiography, he wrote: "My task had been to serve as steward, not proprietor, of an extraordinary public trust."
His family issued a statement, saying he died at home surrounded by his family. He and his wife, the former Marie Wyllis, had three children. He also had a fourth child from an earlier marriage. Funeral plans are pending.
When Christopher's portrait was unveiled at the State Department in 1999, he quipped: "To anyone who has served in Washington, there is something oddly familiar about (having your portrait painted). First, you're painted into a corner, then you're hung out to dry and, finally, you're framed."
Born in Midwest, Raised in California
Born Warren Minor Christopher in Scranton, N.D., he came to California with his family and attended Hollywood High School. His father, a banker in North Dakota, died at age 53, just four years after moving to California.
After a stint at the University of Redlands, he transferred to USC where he graduated magna cum laude in 1945. From 1943 to 1946, he was also an active duty reserve naval ensign in the Pacific.
He earned his law degree in 1949 from Stanford, where he founded the school's law review. After graduation, he worked as a clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, before joining O'Melveny & Myers in 1950.
Then Gov. Pat Brown hired him as a special adviser, and Christopher wrote speeches for him.
He became a partner at O'Melveny & Myers in 1958 -- at age 33 -- and the firm credited him with helping it rise to "national and international prominence.''
After serving in the Johnson administration, he returned to O'Melveny in 1969.
Under Carter, he became deputy secretary of state in 1977 and served in that position until January 20, 1981. He led diplomatic relations with China, worked on the treaties that returned control of the Panama Canal to Panama and was involved in getting 52 American hostages freed from their Iranian captors.
Carter awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Jan. 16, 1981.
In Los Angeles, he served as the head of various organizations, including the county bar association. He led the panel appointed in 1991 to recommend reforms to the Los Angeles Police Department after the Rodney King beating.
Recommendations made by the Christopher Commission, which concluded that a significant number of Los Angeles police officer routinely used excessive force in making arrests, led to the establishment of the five-member Police Commission, a civilian panel given the authority to set policy for the police department.
One of the reforms recommended by the Christopher Commission is just now coming to fruition -- placing video cameras in police cars. Serving in the Clinton administration from 1993 to 1997, Christopher worked to expand NATO, negotiate peace in Israel and pressure China to make human rights reforms.
Since 2003, he taught a course on international affairs as part of the Honors Program at UCLA.
Warren Christopher dies at 85
By Jamie Klatell
The Hill
03/19/11 06:59 AM ET
Former Secretary of State Warren Christopher has died at 85, The Associated Press reports.
Christopher, who worked at the State Department under Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, died of complication from bladder and kidney cancer, according to report.
In 1981, he helped to negotiate the release of American hostages held in Iran.
As the head of Clinton's State Department, Christopher worked for peace between Israelis and Palestinians and negotiated a settlement to end the Bosnian war in 1995.
After leaving the State Department, Christopher managed the Florida recount effort for Vice President Al Gore in the disputed 2000 presidential election.
As news of his death has spread, Democratic leaders have been issuing statements honoring Christopher.
President Obama praised Christopher's long service to the nation:
Deeply dedicated to serving his country, Warren's career ranged from the naval reserve in World War II to a clerkship at the Supreme Court to the practice of law and politics in California and Washington. And as President Clinton's Secretary of State, he was a resolute pursuer of peace, leading negotiations with regard to the Middle East and the Balkans, including the Dayton Agreement, which ended the war in Bosnia. Warren Christopher was a skillful diplomat, a steadfast public servant, and a faithful American.
Current Secretary of State Hillary Clinton released a statement expressing her sadness at the loss of her predecessor:
I was deeply saddened by the passing of my friend and predecessor Warren Christopher. The longer I spend in this job, the deeper my appreciation grows for the giants who came before. Warren was a diplomat’s diplomat – talented, dedicated and exceptionally wise. As well as anyone in his generation, he understood the subtle interplay of national interests, fundamental values and personal dynamics that drive diplomacy. Along with the late Richard Holbrooke, Warren led the effort to bring peace to the Balkans in the 1990s. Over his long career in public service, he also helped establish diplomatic relations with China, oversaw the expansion of NATO, worked tirelessly for peace in the Middle East, and championed human rights around the world. America is safer and the world is more peaceful because of his service.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid noted that Christopher's efforts on behalf of the United States had a global effect:
When Warren Christopher finished out his time as one of the most extensively-traveled diplomats in the history of this country, he said he was pleased to have played a role in making the world safer. We are grateful that he played that role, too, whether he was securing the freedom of American hostages from Iran or negotiating peace in Bosnia. He was an outstanding diplomat and an incredible scholar. But he was also a good friend to me and he will be missed.
Warren Christopher Dies at Age 85
The former secretary of state taught a course on international affairs as part of the Honors Program at UCLA
NBC Los Angeles
3/19/2011 Former Secretary of State Warren Christopher died Friday due to complications from kidney and bladder cancer. He was 85.
Christopher served three presidents before returning to Los Angeles to help run the global law firm O'Melveny & Myers. Christopher was secretary of state during Bill Clinton's first term. He served Lyndon Johnson as deputy attorney general and Jimmy Carter as deputy secretary of state.
Clinton happened to be in Los Angeles Friday to receive the William O. Douglas Award at Public Counsel Law Center's annual gala at the Beverly Hilton, where Barbra Streisand introduced the former president.
The lifelong Democrat was known as a calm and even-handed politician. In his 2001 autobiography, he wrote: "My task had been to serve as steward, not proprietor, of an extraordinary public trust."
His family issued a statement, saying he died at home surrounded by his family. He and his wife, the former Marie Wyllis, had three children. He also had a fourth child from an earlier marriage. Funeral plans are pending.
When Christopher's portrait was unveiled at the State Department in 1999, he quipped: "To anyone who has served in Washington, there is something oddly familiar about (having your portrait painted). First, you're painted into a corner, then you're hung out to dry and, finally, you're framed."
Born in Midwest, Raised in California
Born Warren Minor Christopher in Scranton, N.D., he came to California with his family and attended Hollywood High School. His father, a banker in North Dakota, died at age 53, just four years after moving to California.
After a stint at the University of Redlands, he transferred to USC where he graduated magna cum laude in 1945. From 1943 to 1946, he was also an active duty reserve naval ensign in the Pacific.
He earned his law degree in 1949 from Stanford, where he founded the school's law review. After graduation, he worked as a clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, before joining O'Melveny & Myers in 1950.
Then Gov. Pat Brown hired him as a special adviser, and Christopher wrote speeches for him.
He became a partner at O'Melveny & Myers in 1958 -- at age 33 -- and the firm credited him with helping it rise to "national and international prominence.''
After serving in the Johnson administration, he returned to O'Melveny in 1969.
Under Carter, he became deputy secretary of state in 1977 and served in that position until January 20, 1981. He led diplomatic relations with China, worked on the treaties that returned control of the Panama Canal to Panama and was involved in getting 52 American hostages freed from their Iranian captors.
Carter awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Jan. 16, 1981.
In Los Angeles, he served as the head of various organizations, including the county bar association. He led the panel appointed in 1991 to recommend reforms to the Los Angeles Police Department after the Rodney King beating.
Recommendations made by the Christopher Commission, which concluded that a significant number of Los Angeles police officer routinely used excessive force in making arrests, led to the establishment of the five-member Police Commission, a civilian panel given the authority to set policy for the police department.
One of the reforms recommended by the Christopher Commission is just now coming to fruition -- placing video cameras in police cars. Serving in the Clinton administration from 1993 to 1997, Christopher worked to expand NATO, negotiate peace in Israel and pressure China to make human rights reforms.
Since 2003, he taught a course on international affairs as part of the Honors Program at UCLA
Former secretary of state Warren Christopher dies at 85
Bart Barnes
The Washington Post
March 19, 2011
Warren M. Christopher, who helped negotiate a settlement to the Iran hostage crisis in 1980 and who confronted the ethnic violence in the Balkans and Rwanda while serving as secretary of state during President Bill Clinton’s first term, died March 18 at his home in Los Angeles of complications from kidney and bladder cancer. He was 85.
When Mr. Christopher became the 63rd U.S. secretary of state in 1993, he was already known to the public as an effective, if circumspect, negotiator who played a crucial role in brokering the release of the U.S. hostages in Tehran on the day Jimmy Carter yielded the presidency to Ronald Reagan in 1981.
Earlier he had been the Carter administration’s point man in persuading the Senate to ratify the Panama Canal treaties, which eventually ceded U.S. control of the canal to Panama. He gained the support of crucial senators as the architect of a “reservation” giving the United States the right to protect the canal and then managed to persuade the Panamanians to accept the provision.
When he was named Clinton’s secretary of state, Mr. Christopher was considered the veteran hand who would complement the former Arkansas governor’s limited foreign policy experience.
Mr. Christopher’s primary responsibility was to ensure that crises in foreign policy did not undermine or interfere with the president’s domestic agenda. It was the first time in more than a half-century, Clinton would later say, that the United States was “without a single, overriding threat to our security.”
As a diplomat, Mr. Christopher projected an image of discretion and unflappability. People magazine included him in a feature on the best-dressed men in America. Dressing well, he said, “is a mark of the respect you have for others.” His language was reasoned but often noncommittal. His stock answer to questions about his personal success was “I've been very lucky.”
Writers and commentators characterized him as dour, attentive to detail, patient, steady and poised, but rarely, if ever, charismatic. Clinton once joked that Mr. Christopher was “the only man ever to eat presidential M&Ms with a knife and fork.” No one was surprised when, on an official stopover in Ireland, he ordered Irish coffee, decaffeinated and without alcohol.
In a normally high-profile office, Mr. Christopher shunned publicity, and he disliked being in the spotlight. It was on his watch as secretary that peace accords were reached in 1995 in Dayton, Ohio, ending a three-year war and ethnic slaughter in Bosnia, but much of the news media attention was focused on Assistant Secretary of State Richard C. Holbrooke, who had handled the nitty-gritty of the negotiating. Mr. Christopher later described the agreement as “one of the greatest achievements in American diplomatic history.”
Almost four years after stepping down as secretary of state, Mr. Christopher, a senior adviser to Al Gore’s 2000 presidential campaign, returned to the public arena as chief of the team that litigated the results of the Florida recount.
But the lion’s share of public attention went to lawyer David Boies, who did most of the courtroom work. Ultimately, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of Republican George W. Bush, whose legal team was spearheaded by another former secretary of state, James A. Baker III.
At State, a tumultuous start
As secretary of state, Mr. Christopher told U.S. News & World Report that his “first priority” was to “attack problems before they reach the crisis level” and to keep the United States from expending lives and fortune in international disputes.
“I’d much rather be known as somebody who was a preventer of crises than as a crisis manager,” he said.
But he had a tumultuous beginning. In May 1993, just months into his new job, Mr. Christopher went to Europe to solicit Allied support for a plan to end ethnic cleansing in the Balkans by arming Bosnian Muslim forces and launching airstrikes against Serbian targets. He was unsuccessful and returned to tell Congress that Bosnia had become “a problem from hell.”
Eventually, NATO would agree to a bombing campaign against the Serbs, which Mr. Christopher described as critical in ending the Bosnian slaughter.
In Somalia, what began as a humanitarian relief effort in the final days of the George H.W. Bush administration ended with the withdrawal of U.S. forces in March 1994 in the aftermath of the deaths of 18 U.S. soldiers in Mogadishu.
A month later, the Clinton administration became aware of a systematic slaughter in the African state of Rwanda that left an estimated 800,000 dead, most of them Tutsis. But the United States and other Western nations opted against intervention, and Mr. Christopher authorized State Department personnel to use the word “genocide” only under limited conditions.
Critics later contended that avoidance of the genocide characterization made it easier for the United States to follow a hands-off policy. In 1998, on a visit to the Rwandan capital of Kigali, Clinton said the United States had not acted quickly enough and apologized for not calling the killings genocide.
Mr. Christopher also had little success on a 1994 diplomatic trip to China, which was marked by a roundup of dissidents despite Mr. Christopher’s advocacy on behalf of human rights.
In spite of these setbacks, Mr. Christopher had several important international accomplishments as secretary of state. He accompanied the popularly elected Jean-Bertrand Aristide back to Haiti in 1994 following his restoration to power after an intervention by U.S. troops, acting under a U.N. mandate.
He played an important role in the signing of peace accords between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization and sought to resolve conflicts between Israel and Lebanese militants. But, like other special envoys, he failed to bring lasting peace to the Middle East.
He did the preliminary diplomatic groundwork for the expansion of NATO and extended a nuclear non-proliferation treaty with North Korea.
After the Republican victories in the 1994 midterm elections, Mr. Christopher was reportedly ready to resign.
According to a 1996 report in the New Republic, he offered his resignation, but it was rejected by Clinton after Gen. Colin L. Powell and Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.) declined the post.
Mr. Christopher stepped down as secretary of state in early 1997, tendering his resignation after Clinton’s reelection, and was succeeded by U.N. Ambassador Madeleine K. Albright.
In his book “War in a Time of Peace,” David Halberstam wrote that some senior Democrats considered Mr. Christopher “too much the functionary, a capable and highly competent bureaucrat, but probably a limited one, a man lacking originality and beliefs of his own.”
He was said to have surrendered initiative on foreign policy to others, including national security adviser Anthony Lake and the deputy secretary of state, Strobe Talbott.
But there was a toughness about him too. Washington Post columnist Jim Hoagland once quoted a top Democratic Party operative as saying that Mr. Christopher was “the person you want to give an air of dignity to a knee to the groin if it has to be thrown.”
In Tokyo Bay
Warren Minor Christopher was born Oct. 27, 1925, in Scranton, N.D., the fourth of five children. His father, Ernest, managed a local bank and was forced to foreclose on friends’ and neighbors’ homes during the Depression.
After suffering a stroke at 49, Ernest Christopher moved his family to Hollywood for the healthful climate. But when he died not long afterward, the younger Mr. Christopher was forced to support the family. He never forgot being thrust into poverty.
He graduated from the University of Southern California while serving in the Navy during World War II. His ship was in Tokyo Bay when the Japanese signed the documents of surrender on Sept. 2, 1945. Before returning to the United States, he had a chance to go ashore for an eyewitness view of the war’s devastation.
“What I saw on that trip has stayed with me,” he wrote in his 2001 memoir, “Chances of a Lifetime.” “Large groups of frightened Japanese huddled together in the streets, drifting aimlessly, hungry and homeless.
“When someone mentions war, these are the images that are called up for me. Not flags waving or bands playing, but rubble, hardship and suffering.”
After the war, Mr. Christopher went to Stanford Law School, where he was a founder and the first president of the Stanford Law Review. He spoke of being awakened to the study of international affairs by the new law school dean, Carl Spaeth, who had been a Latin American specialist at the State Department during World War II.
Spaeth helped his young protege gain a yearlong clerkship under U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas after Mr. Christopher graduated from Stanford in 1949. He then returned to California and joined O’Melveny & Myers, a blue-chip law firm where he would remain for the private-sector phase of his career.
Enters government work
In 1958, Mr. Christopher was a speechwriter for the successful California gubernatorial election campaign of Democrat Edmund G. “Pat” Brown. Mr. Christopher reportedly crafted the phrase “responsible liberalism” to describe Brown’s approach to social issues. In 1965, Brown named Mr. Christopher vice chairman of the governor's commission on the riots in the Watts section of Los Angeles.
Mr. Christopher drafted the commission’s report, which amounted to a plea for better housing, education and jobs. In 1991, Mr. Christopher served on the commission that investigated the Los Angeles riots after the police beating of Rodney King. That commission’s report, which detailed police misconduct and racism, proposed significant reforms that were overwhelmingly approved in a referendum.
In 1967, Mr. Christopher came to Washington as deputy attorney general to Ramsey Clark in the Johnson administration. That summer, he recommended sending the Army's 82nd Airborne Division to Detroit to quell rioting.
During the unrest that followed the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968, he coordinated efforts to control disturbances in Chicago.
He returned to his Los Angeles law practice during the Republican presidencies of Richard M. Nixon and Gerald R. Ford.
In 1977, Carter selected Mr. Christopher to serve as deputy secretary of state under Cyrus Vance. At his confirmation hearings, Sen. Jacob K. Javits (R-N.Y.) charged that the nominee had known of and condoned illegal Army surveillance of domestic dissidents while he was serving in the Justice Department.
Despite Mr. Christopher’s denials, the allegation resurfaced 20 years later when the Associated Press uncovered a memorandum with Mr. Christopher’s initials indicating that he was aware of the surveillance. His aides said he must have forgotten the matter, and it faded from the public spotlight.
The Tehran crisis
As deputy secretary of state, Mr. Christopher was the Carter administration’s point man in denouncing the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and supporting a U.S. boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. He was also charged with informing Taiwan that the United States would normalize relations with mainland China.
In November 1979, Iranian students seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, taking 52 Americans hostage. After a helicopter rescue attempt failed in April 1980, was followed by Vance resigned as secretary of state.
Hoping to be named Vance’s successor, Mr. Christopher was disappointed when Carter appointed Sen. Edmund S. Muskie (D-Maine). According to his memoir, he considered resigning, but after a long nighttime jog, he decided against it.
Mr. Christopher immersed himself in the hostage negotiations and often shuttled back and forth to Algeria, whose government was acting as an intermediary. On Jan. 16, 1981, Carter awarded him the Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award.
In his personal life, Mr. Christopher was a tennis player and jogger, although as he aged he would confess, “I've been demoted to walking.” In December 1956, he married Marie Josephine Wyllis, a former schoolteacher.
She and their children survive, along with a daughter from an earlier marriage.
Rarely did Mr. Christopher display emotion in public. But on Jan. 20, 1981, as Carter was yielding the presidency toReagan in Washington, Mr. Christopher was in Algiers to greet the planeload of freed hostages on the first leg of their journey home to the United States. It was a moving occasion, even for the usually stoic and reserved Mr. Christopher.
“There were very few people with dry eyes, and I was not among them,” he said.
Former US Secretary of State Warren Christopher dies
BBC News
3/19/2011
Mr Christopher was a loyal Democrat and meticulous lawyer Former US Secretary of State Warren Christopher has died of cancer aged 85.
Mr Christopher will be remembered for helping bring peace to Bosnia in the 1990s and negotiating the release of American hostages in Iran in 1981.
His understated manner as top US diplomat from 1993-97 led to his being called the "stealth" secretary of state.
"Careful listening may be the secret weapon," he once said in a speech.
"I observed some time ago that I was better at listening than at talking."
Mr Christopher passed away peacefully at home in California late on Friday after complications from bladder and kidney cancer, his family were reported as saying.
Born on 27 October 1925 in North Dakota, he rose from modest circumstances to become a highly successful Los Angeles lawyer.
Before his career in diplomacy Mr Christopher served as a deputy attorney general under President Lyndon Johnson in the late 1960s.
He made headlines as deputy secretary of state in the Carter administration by negotiating the release in 1981 of 52 American hostages in Iran. His efforts won him the US's highest civilian award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
"The best public servant I ever knew," Jimmy Carter wrote in his memoirs.
The following decade saw Mr Christopher deeply involved in efforts to secure peace in the Middle East.
He had more success in the former Yugoslavia, helping end war among Muslims, Serbs and Croats in Bosnia with the 1995 Dayton accords. The conflict claimed more than 100,000 lives, making it the most deadly in Europe since WWII.
Mr Christopher travelled tirelessly for work. He set a new record for the number of air miles clocked up by a secretary of state over a four-year period.
Mr Christopher worked tirelessly in the Middle East but peace was elusive By October 1996, now in his 70s, he had flown 704,487 miles and the crew on his air force plane presented him with a cake to mark the occasion.
The following year he resigned, to be replaced by Madeleine Albright. President Bill Clinton said Mr Christopher had "left the mark of his hand on history".
He also joked that Mr Christopher, who was always immaculately turned out, was "the only man ever to eat M&Ms on Air Force One with a fork".
Warren Christopher is survived by his wife Marie and four children from his two marriages.
Former U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher dies at age 85
Xinhua.cn
3/19/2011
LOS ANGELES, March 19 (Xinhua) -- Former U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher, who served three presidents died Friday due to complications from kidney and bladder cancer. He was 85.
Christopher died at his home in Los Angeles and was surrounded by his family, the family said in a statement. He is survived by his wife and four children from two marriages.
"He was a resolute pursuer of peace, leading negotiations with regard to the Middle East and the Balkans, including the Dayton Agreement, which ended the war in Bosnia," U.S. President Barak Obama said in a statement issued at midmorning Saturday.
"Warren Christopher was a skillful diplomat, a steadfast public servant, and a faithful American," the president added.
Christopher was secretary of state during Bill Clinton's first term, and served Lyndon Johnson as a deputy attorney general and Jimmy Carter as deputy secretary of state.
Under Carter, he became deputy secretary of state in 1977 and served in that position until January 20, 1981. He led the United States' effort to normalize diplomatic relations with China, worked on the treaties that returned control of the Panama Canal to Panama and was involved in getting 52 American hostages freed from their Iranian captors.
Carter awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Jan. 16, 1981.
Serving in the Clinton administration from 1993 to 1997, Christopher worked to expand NATO and negotiate peace in Israel.
Funeral plans were pending.
Warren Christopher, 1925-2011
Posted by Jeffrey Toobin
The New Yorker
3/19/2011
Warren Christopher, who died yesterday, belonged to a generation of private lawyers who maintained a serious and lifelong parallel commitment to public service. As Deputy Attorney General under President Lyndon B. Johnson, Secretary of State in Bill Clinton’s first term, and a volunteer for many other important assignments, he was always a figure of rectitude and a voice for humane values. He was, to use an old fashioned word, a gentleman.
My only contact with Chris, as he was always known, came during a late, brief, and unhappy chapter in his career. In the chaotic first days after the 2000 election, Al Gore and George W. Bush selected Christopher and James A. Baker III as their respective representatives in Florida, which was the dispositive state in the race. Both were former Secretaries of State. It soon became apparent that that was about all they had in common.
Chris believed in negotiation; he didn’t necessarily trust that he and Baker could simply decide the winner of the race between them, but he did think that they could at least settle the ground rules and procedures. Facing Baker in a conference room at the tiny Governors Inn, in Tallahassee, Chris thought he could reach at least some kind of meeting of the minds.
Baker didn’t. Baker recognized that the race for the Presidency was the ultimate zero-sum game, and he decided not to yield on a single question. Under Chris, the Gore forces both preached and practiced restraint. Under Baker, the Bush team fought all-out on every front—through the media, in the courthouses, and in the streets. The difference between the two sides, and between the two men, was immediately apparent and central to the final result.
By the end of the thirty-six day contest, the Gore side had stepped up its efforts, which were, by that point, led by David Boies and Ron Klain (a Christopher protégé). Chris had long since returned to Los Angeles. He was then, and is now, an honorable representative of an era very different from our own.
Obama on Christopher: 'Resolute pursuer of peace'
David Jackson
USA TODAY
3/19/2011
President Obama has issued a statement on the death of former secretary of State Warren Christopher:
Michelle and I were saddened to hear that Warren Christopher has passed away.
Deeply dedicated to serving his country, Warren's career ranged from the naval reserve in World War II to a clerkship at the Supreme Court to the practice of law and politics in California and Washington.
And as President Clinton's secretary of State, he was a resolute pursuer of peace, leading negotiations with regard to the Middle East and the Balkans, including the Dayton Agreement, which ended the war in Bosnia.
Warren Christopher was a skillful diplomat, a steadfast public servant, and a faithful American. We send our thoughts and prayers to his wife, Marie, and their children
Baker didn’t. Baker recognized that the race for the Presidency was the ultimate zero-sum game, and he decided not to yield on a single question. Under Chris, the Gore forces both preached and practiced restraint. Under Baker, the Bush team fought all-out on every front—through the media, in the courthouses, and in the streets. The difference between the two sides, and between the two men, was immediately apparent and central to the final result.
By the end of the thirty-six day contest, the Gore side had stepped up its efforts, which were, by that point, led by David Boies and Ron Klain (a Christopher protégé). Chris had long since returned to Los Angeles. He was then, and is now, an honorable representative of an era very different from our own.
Former Secretary of State Warren Christopher Dead
New York Magazine
3/19/2011
Former Secretary of State Warren Christopher died Friday evening at 85, from complications related to kidney and bladder cancer. Among other things, Warren was known for presiding over diplomatic relations with China and conducting negotiations in the Middle East. In 1981, he received the Medal of Freedom for his role in negotiating the release of 52 American hostages in Iran, while serving as deputy secretary of State for President Jimmy Carter. Christopher then served as America's chief diplomat for four years as part of the Clinton administration, overseeing the negotiation of the 1995 Dayton Agreement that ended the Bosnian war. Warren is survived by his wife, four children, and five grandchildren.
Warren Christopher, Former Secretary of State, Democratic Wise Man, Dead at 85
Politics Daily
3/19/2011
Former Secretary of State Warren M. Christopher, who served as secretary of state in the Clinton administration during the bloody ethnic conflicts in the Balkans, died Friday from complications of kidney and bladder cancer. He was 85.
After four years as the nation's top diplomat, Christopher stepped down to serve as a senior adviser to Al Gore's 2000 White House campaign, leading the vice president's legal team during the disputed post-election recount in Florida.
President Obama, in a statement Saturday, called Christopher a "skilled diplomat, a steadfast public servant and a faithful American."
Obama said Christopher was "deeply dedicated to serving his country" during a career that included World War II service in the Naval Reserve, a U.S. Supreme Court clerkship, a law practice in California and Washington, and a role as a much sought-after adviser to Democratic politicians.
"As President Clinton's secretary of state, he was a resolute pursuer of peace, leading negotiations with regard to the Middle East and the Balkans, including the Dayton [Ohio] agreement, which ended the war in Bosnia," Obama said. Christopher was also a U.S. negotiator in the 1981 release of American hostages in Iran.
Former President Jimmy Carter, in his memoirs, called him "the best public servant I ever knew."
Christoper died at his home in Los Angeles, the Associated Press reported.
Former Clinton Secretary of State Christopher dies at 85
Michael Catalini
National Journal
Saturday, March 19, 2011 | 11:58 a.m. Former Clinton administration Secretary of State Warren M. Christopher, who played an important role in the United States' Bosnia and Mideast policies, died Friday at the age of 85, according to a media report.
Christopher died in his Los Angeles home of complications from bladder and kidney cancer, the AP reported.
In 2000, Christopher supervised the contested recount in Florida between Al Gore and George W. Bush before the Supreme Court decided on a 5-4 vote in favor of George W. Bush.
After helping negotiate the release of American hostages in Iran, Christopher received the Medal of Freedom in 1981.
When he announced he was stepping down as secretary of state in 1996, President Bill Clinton said of Christopher, ""The cause of peace and freedom and decency have never had a more tireless or tenacious advocate," according to CNN.
Senate majority leader Harry Reid remembered Christopher as a friend.
"He was an outstanding diplomat and an incredible scholar. But he was also a good friend to me and he will be missed," Reid said in a statement released Saturday morning.
Plans for a private memorial are pending, according to media reports.
Warren Christopher
The Telegraph
03/20/2011
Warren Christopher, the American former Secretary of State who died on March 18, was maligned, often unfairly, as President Clinton's "flak catcher in chief" and blamed for many of the foreign policy mistakes of the early Clinton years.
A transparently honest, decent man, Christopher had earned his diplomatic laurels as Deputy Secretary of State under Jimmy Carter when he negotiated the release in 1980 of 52 Americans held hostage in the embassy in Tehran, a tortuous process that became a model of American diplomacy – but came too late to rescue Carter's presidency.
As Secretary of State from 1993 to 1997, Christopher's evident strengths – in damage control and diplomacy – came to be seen as weaknesses. Loyal and hard-working, he seemed to regard himself more as Clinton's lawyer, taking instructions and making his case to other people, than as an independent policy-maker in his own right. Thus he never established an agenda of his own at a time when Clinton did not know his own mind; as a result he failed to articulate a vision of America's role and left office without leaving a significant mark on US foreign policy.
Hampered by a lugubrious manner and almost suffocating discretion, Christopher had a keen sense of his own limitations and was so modest that on one occasion he felt he had to tell the audience at a Washington conference about the Middle East who he was before he started talking. He was so anonymous that the Belgian Foreign Minister, Willy Claes, once referred to him at a Nato news conference as "Christopher Warren".
Yet the Clinton administration had come into office with a strong hand. The Cold War was over, the Soviet Union in ruins. There was a unique opportunity to build a new structure of American foreign policy. But while there were fine words, there was little "follow-through". Explicitly espousing a foreign policy of "assertive multilateralism," the new President launched an ambitious UN-led "nation building" exercise in Somalia. The experiment collapsed with the deaths of 18 Americans in Mogadishu in late 1993, and the vocabulary of "assertive multilateralism" largely disappeared.
Worse was to come the following year when the US and UN failed to react quickly enough to the unrest in Kigali which eventually led to the Rwandan genocide. In the course of some 100 days, between early April and July, at least 500,000 Tutsis were killed by Hutu militia.
Within the US, Christopher was especially censured for his perceived weak diplomacy in China. In March 1994 he paid a visit to Beijing to negotiate a renewal of China's low-tariff privileges, during which he appeared to be kowtowing to Beijing's leaders without gaining any concessions on human rights, despite the fact that Clinton had given the issue a high profile during the 1992 presidential campaign.
Christopher was sidelined during one of the few early successes of the Clinton era, Operation Uphold Democracy, which returned Haiti's popularly-elected President Jean-Bertrande Aristide to power in 1994 after he had been unseated in a coup. Christopher had opposed the mission led by Jimmy Carter to negotiate a peaceful end to the crisis, and Carter later complained that he had had little co-operation from the State Department. Instead the initiative was taken by Clinton's national security adviser, Anthony Lake, and the former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, General Colin Powell, who accompanied Carter to Haiti.
Of course Christopher could point to some achievements. In Europe, he promoted the Nato Partnership for Peace which led to the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland becoming full members of the alliance in 1999. In 1995, working with John McCain, he persuaded Clinton that the time had come to normalise diplomatic relations with Vietnam.
His supporters also credited Christopher (and his chief negotiator Richard Holbrooke), with brokering the Dayton Agreement of November 1995 which brought an end to the conflict in Bosnia. However the talks came about after two and a half years of uncertain diplomacy which began with Clinton's accusation that the Bush administration was doing too little, then shifted to the view that the conflict was largely Europe's problem. During this time Christopher accused all sides in Bosnia of human rights abuses, apparently ignoring the role of Serbian leaders as inciters of genocide, and sidestepped European demands for American intervention to end a conflict which he had once described as a crucial test of the post-Cold War world's ability to cope with ethnic conflicts.
American weakness in coming to terms with Bosnia was underscored when Christopher made a disastrous trip to Europe in April 1993 at which a US plan to exempt the poorly-armed Bosnian government from a UN arms embargo, with a back-up option of targeted air strikes on the Serbs, was rejected. Unlike the US, the Europeans had thousands of peacekeeping troops on the ground, vulnerable to reprisals.
Christopher's main area of interest was the Middle East, where he was dogged in trying to achieve progress. In the wake of the Oslo Accords, he orchestrated an official signing ceremony in Washington in September 1993, with Mahmoud Abbas representing the PLO and Shimon Peres signing for Israel. He went on to broker a peace treaty between Jordan and Israel, eventually offering Jordan's King Hussein $200 million in military equipment and $700 million in debt relief to sweeten the deal. However his attempts to negotiate peace between Israel and Syria ended in stalemate.
Christopher's personal authority was undermined by constant speculation about his future. As early as 1993 The Economist was describing him as "the weakest link in Mr Clinton's trio of foreign policy advisers", and calling for his replacement. In 1994 there were authoritative reports that Anthony Lake had been trying to elbow him aside, complaining that the "paralysis" in the State Department was so severe he had been forced to seize control of foreign policy in a number of areas (including Rwanda and Northern Ireland) himself. Even the president was said to have criticised Christopher at high-level meetings, a humiliating experience for a senior cabinet member.
Christopher became so fed up that at one point he even secretly met Colin Powell to see if he wanted the job. When, in response to the rumours, he stated that news of his imminent departure or resignation were neither new nor accurate, The New York Times reported that State Department officials were interpreting the word "imminent" as "evidence that he might indeed walk out the door".
The usual courtesies were observed when Christopher left his post at the beginning of Clinton's second term in January 1997, but a truer judgment of his time at the State Department came with the ceremonial unveiling of his portrait at the department in 1999. "To anyone who has served in Washington," Christopher remarked, "there is something oddly familiar about [having your portrait painted]. First, you're painted into a corner, then you're hung out to dry and, finally, you're framed."
Warren Minor Christopher was born on October 27 1925 at Scranton, North Dakota, and raised in Los Angeles, where he attended Hollywood High School. In 1942 he entered the University of Redlands, but transferred to the University of Southern California to complete his studies. From 1943 to 1946 he served in the US Naval Reserve as an ensign in the Pacific theatre of operations.
After the war he enrolled in Stanford University's law school, qualifying in 1949. After graduation he was appointed clerk to Justice William Douglas of the US Supreme Court, but after a year returned to California and joined the Los Angeles-based law firm of O'Melveny & Myers, becoming a partner in 1958. From then on he split his career between practising law and public service.
Christopher served as special counsel to the California Governor Edmund Brown and vice-chairman of a commission established in 1965 to investigate the causes of the urban riots in Watts, Los Angeles. At the same time he served as a consultant to the State Department and helped to negotiate several international trade agreements. From 1967 to 1969 he served as Deputy Attorney General of the United States under President Lyndon Johnson and assisted in federal efforts to combat the urban riots in Detroit and Chicago in 1967 and 1968.
President Jimmy Carter called Christopher back to Washington in 1977 as deputy to the Secretary of State, Cyrus Vance. The release of the Tehran embassy staff seized as hostages by Iranian militants in 1979 was the crowning achievement of his career and in 1981, as one of his last acts before leaving office, Carter awarded Christopher the Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award.
Christopher returned to California where, in 1991, he was appointed to chair a commission to investigate charges of brutality and racism in the Los Angeles Police Department, set up after a videotape showing LAPD officers assaulting an African American man, Rodney King, caused public outrage.
In 1992 when Bill Clinton won enough votes in the primaries to be assured of the Democratic Party's nomination for the presidency he asked Christopher to head the team to select a vice-presidential running mate (Al Gore). After Clinton's election victory in November 1992 he headed the new President's transition staff and advised him on his first round of cabinet appointments. In 1993 Christopher was sworn in as 63rd US Secretary of State.
Christopher retired to his home in California and continued to serve on foreign policy advisory boards. In 2000 he emerged briefly to supervise the contested Florida recount for Al Gore in the presidential election.
Christopher was the author of In the Stream of History: Shaping Foreign Policy for a New Era (1998), and Chances of a Lifetime (2001).
Warren Christopher's first marriage was dissolved, and in 1956 he married Marie Wyllis, with whom he had two sons and two daughters.
Former Secretary Of State Warren Christopher Dies
NPR
03/20/2011
Warren M. Christopher, a key figure in peace efforts in Bosnia and the Mideast as secretary of state in the Clinton administration, has died, a spokeswoman for his law firm said Saturday. He was 85.
Christopher died at his home in Los Angeles late Friday of complications from bladder and kidney cancer, said Sonja Steptoe of the law firm O'Melveny & Myers, where Christopher was a senior partner.
A longtime Californian, Christopher also headed a panel that pushed a number of Los Angeles Police Department reforms following the 1992 riots.
A loyal Democrat and meticulous lawyer, Christopher also supervised the contested Florida recount for Al Gore in the 2000 presidential election. The Supreme Court, on a 5-4 vote, decided for George W. Bush.
As he prepared to step down in 1996 as secretary "for someone else to pick up the baton," he said in an interview he was pleased to have played a role in making the United States safer.
His proudest accomplishments, he told The Associated Press, included a role in promoting a ban on nuclear weapons tests and extension of curbs on proliferation of weapons technology. He also tried to promote peace in the Middle East, tirelessly traveling to the region. Christopher made some two dozen trips to Syria alone in a futile effort to promote a settlement with Israel.
He was more successful in the negotiations that produced a settlement in 1995 for Bosnia, ending a war among Muslims, Serbs and Croats that claimed 260,000 lives and drove another 1.8 million people from their homes.
Some critics said the administration had moved too slowly against the ethnic violence. Then-Rep. Frank McCloskey, an Indiana Democrat, called for Christopher's resignation and virtually accused the administration of ignoring genocide against Bosnian Muslims. A handful of State Department officials resigned in protest.
Christopher also gave top priority to supporting reform in Russia and expanding U.S. economic ties to Asia.
While Christopher often preferred a behind-the-scenes role, he also made news as deputy secretary of state in the Carter administration, conducting the tedious negotiations that gained the release in 1981 of 52 American hostages in Iran.
President Jimmy Carter awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award. "The best public servant I ever knew," Carter wrote in his memoirs.
In private life, Christopher also served. Among many other things, he chaired a commission that proposed reforms of the Los Angeles Police Department in the aftermath of the videotaped beating by police of motorist Rodney King in 1991. When four officers arrested for beating King were acquitted of most charges the following year Los Angeles erupted in days of deadly rioting.
In examining years of police records following the riots, the Christopher Commission found "a significant number of officers" routinely used excessive force.
"The department not only failed to deal with the problem group of officers but it often rewarded them with positive evaluations and promotions," according to the report.
The best public servant I ever knew.
- President Jimmy Carter, reflecting on Christopher in his memoirs
Numerous reforms were eventually put in place, including limiting the police chief to two five-year terms and having the chief appointed and supervised by a civilian commission.
Christopher's calm intervention amid political turmoil prompted the Republicans to turn to an elder statesman of their own, James A. Baker III, to represent Bush in the election dispute.
Accepting Christopher's resignation as the nation's top diplomat, President Bill Clinton said Christopher "left the mark of his hand on history."
As Clinton considered a successor, Christopher offered the criteria he would apply if the choice was up to him.
"It would be somebody who has the capacity to provide forceful leadership, someone who has great tenacity, someone who has endurance and a lot of stamina," he said.
He had taken the job in January 1993 at the age of 68, saying that at his age he did not expect to be traveling all that much.
In the skies over Africa and approaching his 71st birthday in October 1996, Christopher set a new mark for miles traveled by a secretary of state over four years, the normal length of a presidential term: 704,487.
The crew on his Air Force jet presented him with a congratulatory cake.
Christopher overcame sleep deprivation, difficult negotiations with the likes of the late Syrian President Hafez Assad and nagging ulcers to keep his eye on American interests.
Always crisp, modest and polite, he drove home an agreement in his last year on the job to halt fighting in Lebanon between Israel and extremist Shiite guerrillas.
"We have achieved the goal of our mission, which was to achieve an agreement that will save lives and end the suffering of people on both sides of the Israeli-Lebanese border," Christopher said in Jerusalem, his weeklong mission a success.
Madeleine Albright stepped in for Clinton's second term and Christopher returned to his law firm of O'Melveny & Myers with Clinton's "deep gratitude" for his service and with president's playful description of Christopher as "the only man ever to eat M&Ms on Air Force One with a fork."
Unlike some who held the job, Christopher worked smoothly with the president's other senior advisers.
Although critics complained that the Clinton administration's foreign policy lacked dramatic initiatives, the poised and cautious Christopher indicated he was pleased with the results, especially with what he called the "triple play" of a NAFTA trade agreement with Canada and Mexico, the APEC expansion of U.S. economic ties to Pacific Rim nations, and the GATT accord on international tariffs and trade.
"Taking it overall, we've done very well on the major issues," he said at a news conference in 1993, during which he also cited U.S. support for economic and political reform in Russia and the "partnership for peace" proposal to expand the involvement of former Communist adversaries in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Christopher also looked back with gratitude on how far he had come from a childhood in Scranton, N.D., marked by bitter winters and modest circumstances. His father was a bank cashier who fell ill, and the family moved to Southern California during the Depression. After his father's death his mother supported the family of five children as a sales clerk.
An ensign in the U.S. Navy reserves, he was called up to active duty during World War II and served in the Pacific.
He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Southern California in 1945 and, after attending Stanford Law School, served as a clerk to Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas in 1949 and 1950.
In the late 1960s, he was a deputy attorney general in the administration of Lyndon Johnson.
In 2008, Christopher was co-chairman of a bipartisan panel that studied the recurring question of who under U.S. law should decide when the country goes to war. It proposed that the president be required to inform Congress of any plans to engage in "significant armed conflict" lasting longer than a week.
As a successful Los Angeles lawyer, Christopher had a seven-figure income, and a beach house in fashionable Santa Barbara.
He is survived by his wife Marie, and had four children in two marriages: Lynn, Scott, Thomas, and Kristen. Plans were pending for a private memorial service.
Cancer claims Warren Christopher, 85
United Press International, iStockAnalyst.com
3/19/2011
Mar. 19, 2011 (United Press International) -- Warren Christopher, secretary of state in the Clinton administration, died in Los Angeles of cancer at the age of 85, his family announced Saturday.
The attorney decorated for his role in securing the release of 52 U.S. hostages in Iran in 1981 died of cancer in his kidneys and bladder, CNN said.
Christopher was the secretary of state for President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1997 and prior to that was deputy secretary of state for President Jimmy Carter.
The New York Times said Christopher made his substantial fortune representing the likes of IBM (NYSE:IBM) and the Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE:LMT) while working his way up through the ranks of the O'Melveny & Myers law firm.
Among his diplomatic accomplishments, Christopher shepherded a treaty regarding the Panama Canal that granted the United States military access.
However, his efforts at getting Iran's post-revolutionary government to release 52 U.S. hostages in 1981 are the highlight of his career. The Times said Christopher rarely showed emotion, but cried when the hostages were released.
"I am thankful to have served a nation so quietly strong that it could preserve its honor, not by retaliation or vengeance, but by preserving the lives of the hostages," he said.
He was awarded the highest U.S. civilian honor, the Medal of Freedom, by President Jimmy Carter for his efforts.
President Barack Obama issued a statement Saturday lauding Christopher's career.
"Warren Christopher was a skillful diplomat, a steadfast public servant, and a faithful American," Obama said.
Christopher is survived by his wife, three children and five grandchildren.
Former secretary of state Warren Christopher dies
Kansas City Star News
03/20/2011
Warren Christopher, the secretary of state in President Bill Clinton’s first term and the chief negotiator for the 1981 release of American hostages in Iran, died Friday night in Los Angeles. He was 85.
Christopher alternated for nearly five decades between top echelons of the federal government and legal and political life in California. He served as administration point man with Congress in winning ratification of Panama Canal treaties, presided over normalization of diplomatic relations with China and conducted repeated negotiations involving the Middle East and the Balkans.
Christopher developed a reputation as an expert in urban riots, investigating racial unrest in Detroit and in the Watts district of Los Angeles and later heading a 1991 commission that proposed reforms of the Los Angeles Police Department after riots prompted by the beating of black motorist Rodney King.
Eight years later, when Gore was running for president, Christopher directed the search resulting in the selection of Sen. Joe Lieberman for the second spot on the Democratic ticket.
When the 2000 election stalemated, Christopher supervised the recount of disputed votes in Florida before George W. Bush emerged the winner in a 5-4 Supreme Court decision.
Christopher came under criticism over a lack of legal and political aggressiveness against Bush’s legal team, led by James Baker, a former secretary of state.
But Klain said it was Christopher’s decision to challenge the Florida result, even as most Republicans and some prominent Democrats were urging Gore to concede.
Warren Minor Christopher was born Oct. 27, 1925, in Scranton, N.D., one of five children. His father, a banker, suffered a stroke that the family thought was the result of overwork from his unsuccessful efforts keep the bank solvent during the Depression. The elder Christopher died four years later at the age of 53 after the family moved to California.
The unabashed New Deal liberalism that young Warren embraced during this formative period remained with him throughout his career, even though he made his financial fortune representing IBM, Lockheed Martin and other major companies for O’Melveny & Myers, the most traditional and prestigious Los Angeles law firm.
He entered a Navy officer program at the University of Southern California, soon to serve as an ensign in the Navy Reserve on an oil tanker in the Pacific during World War II.
After earning degrees at USC and Stanford University’s law school, Christopher won a clerkship with William Douglas, during which he helped draft book chapters for the Supreme Court justice.
He joined O’Melveny & Myers in 1950 and soon became an adviser and speechwriter for Gov. Edmund Brown.
Christopher was named by Brown to the commission investigating the 1965 Watts riots. This brought him to the attention of President Lyndon Johnson, who in 1967 brought him back to Washington, until January 1969, as deputy to Attorney General Ramsey Clark.
As he focused on racial unrest in Detroit and Washington, he formed a relationship with Cyrus Vance, who, on being installed as secretary of state seven years later recommended that President Jimmy Carter appoint Christopher to be deputy secretary of state.
In that role, Christopher shepherded through the Senate the Panama Canal treaties.
But it was his agonizing and prolonged negotiations for the release of 52 hostages held in the American Embassy in Tehran for more than a year after Iran’s 1979 revolution for which Christopher’s tenure is most vividly remembered.
Early in 1981, he brokered a deal under which the hostages would be freed in return for an unfreezing of Iranian assets and a lifting of sanctions.
As secretary of state from 1993 to 1997, Christopher tirelessly traveled to Bosnia and the Middle East on peace missions, including some two dozen to Syria in a futile effort to promote a settlement with Israel.
After giving way to Madeleine Albright in 1997 after one term as secretary of state, Christopher again returned to O’Melveny & Myers and civic and political life in California.
Former Secretary of State dies at 85
Mary Karalis
WPRI
03/20/2011
WASHINGTON, D.C. (WPRI) - Former Secretary of State Warren M. Christopher has died.
Christopher is well remembered as a key figure in peace efforts in Bosnia and the Middle East during the Clinton administration.
He also helped conduct negotiations to release American hostages in Iran during the Carter administration.
Family members say Christopher, 85, died of complications from Bladder and Kidney Cancer.
Passing of a 'resolute pursuer of peace', Warren Christopher
The Australian
March 21, 2011
WARREN Christopher, the lawyer turned envoy who tirelessly travelled to Bosnia and the Middle East on peace missions during his tenure as US secretary of state in the Clinton administration, has died at age 85.
Christopher died at the weekend at his home in Los Angeles of complications from bladder and kidney cancer, said Sonja Steptoe of the law firm O'Melveny & Myers, where Christopher was a senior partner.
When he took over as secretary of state in the Clinton administration at age 68, Christopher said he did not expect to travel much. His travels became the stuff of diplomatic legend.
In the skies over Africa and approaching his 71st birthday in October 1996, Christopher set a new mark for distance travelled by a secretary of state over four years, the normal length of a presidential term: 1,133,762km.
That included two dozen trips to Syria alone in a futile effort to promote a settlement with Israel.
US President Barack Obama said yesterday he mourned the passing of a man who proved to be a "resolute pursuer of peace" and dedicated public servant.
Along with his peace efforts, Christopher said in 1996 that his proudest accomplishments included playing a role in promoting a ban on nuclear weapons tests and extending curbs on proliferation of weapons technology. The loyal Democrat also headed Clinton's vice-presidential search committee, having recommended Al Gore for the party's 1992 presidential ticket.
Bill Clinton said yesterday he was saddened by Christopher's passing. "Chris had the lowest ratio of ego to accomplishment of any public servant I've ever worked with," Mr Clinton said. "That made him easy to underestimate, but all Americans should be grateful that, along with great ability, he possessed the stamina and the steel to accomplish things that were truly extraordinary."
While Christopher's efforts with Syria did not bear fruit, he was more successful in the negotiations that produced a settlement in 1995 for Bosnia, ending a war among Muslims, Serbs and Croats that claimed 260,000 lives and drove another 1.8 million people from their homes.
Always crisp, modest and polite, he finalised an agreement in his last year on the job to halt fighting in Lebanon between Israel and Shi'ite guerillas.
Christopher preferred a behind-the-scenes role, but he made news as deputy secretary of state in the Carter administration, conducting the negotiations that gained the release of 52 American hostages in Iran in 1981.
Jimmy Carter awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award. "The best public servant I ever knew," Mr Carter wrote in his memoirs.
Christopher also chaired a commission that proposed reforms of the Los Angeles Police Department in the aftermath of the videotaped beating by police of motorist Rodney King in 1991.
An ensign in the US navy reserves, he served as a clerk to Supreme Court Justice William Douglas in 1949 and 1950.
In the late 1960s, he was a deputy attorney-general in the administration of Lyndon Johnson.
In 2008, Christopher was co-chairman of a bipartisan panel that studied the recurring question of who under US law should decide when the country goes to war. It proposed that the president be required to inform congress of any plans to engage in "significant armed conflict" lasting longer than a week.
He is survived by his wife, Marie, and four children.
Former US Secretary of State Christopher dies
SETimes.com (Southern European Times News)
20/03/2011
WASHINGTON, Unites States -- Former US Secretary of State Warren Christopher has passed away at the age of 85, media reported on Friday (March, 18th). He was one of the key figures in Bill Clinton's administration. Christopher was involved in brokering of Dayton Peace Agreements that put an end to the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. (Tanjug, Srna, RTRS, Radio Free Europe - 18/03/11)
Clinton envoy was ‘pursuer of peace’
Barry Schweid
The Associated Press, The Chronicle Herald Canada, St. Louis Today, The Hour, Southern California Public Radio, The Morning Call
03/20/2011 WASHINGTON — Warren M. Christopher, the attorney turned envoy who tirelessly travelled to Bosnia and the Middle East on peace missions during his 1993-96 tenure as secretary of state in the Clinton administration, has died at age 85.
Late Friday, Christopher died at his home in Los Angeles of complications from bladder and kidney cancer, said Sonja Steptoe of the law firm O’Melveny & Myers, where Christopher was a senior partner
When he took over as secretary of state in the Clinton administration at age 68, Christoper said he didn’t expect to travel much. He went on to set a four-year mark for miles travelled by America’s top diplomat, including some two dozen trips to Syria alone in a futile effort to promote a settlement with Israel.
After his work carrying out the Clinton administration agenda abroad, the longtime Californian returned home for an active life in local and national affairs and with his law firm.
President Barack Obama said Saturday that he mourned the passing of a man who proved to be a "resolute pursuer of peace" and dedicated public servant.
"Warren Christopher was a skilful diplomat, a steadfast public servant, and a faithful American," the president said in a statement.
As he prepared to step down in 1996 as secretary "for someone else to pick up the baton," he said in an interview he was pleased to have played a role in making the United States safer.
Along with his peace efforts, he told The Associated Press that his proudest moments included a role in promoting a ban on nuclear weapons tests and an extension of curbs on proliferation of weapons technology.
The loyal Democrat also supervised the contested Florida presidential recount on behalf of vice-president Al Gore in the 2000 presidential election. The Supreme Court, on a 5-4 vote, decided for the Republican candidate George W. Bush.
While his efforts with Syria didn’t bear fruit, he was more successful in the negotiations that produced a settlement in 1995 for Bosnia, ending a war among Muslims, Serbs and Croats that claimed 260,000 lives and drove another 1.8 million people from their homes.
Statesman Pursued Peace
The Times Colonist, Reuters
03/20/2011
Former U.S. secretary of state Warren Christopher, who helped bring peace to Bosnia and negotiated the release of American hostages in Iran, died in California at age 85.
Christopher "passed away peacefully, surrounded by family at his home in Los Angeles" late on Friday of complications from kidney and bladder cancer, his family said in a statement.
As the top U.S. statesman under president Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1997, Christopher was a behindthe-scenes negotiator. Often called the "stealth" secretary of state, he was known for his understated, selfeffacing manner.
"As President Clinton's secretary of state, he was a resolute pursuer of peace," President Barack Obama said Saturday.
"Warren Christopher was a skilful diplomat, a steadfast public servant, and a faithful American."
Christopher said that as a diplomat, careful listening was his secret weapon. "I observed some time ago that I was better at listening than at talking," The New York Times quoted him as saying in a 1981 speech when he was deputy secretary of state.
That secret weapon helped Christopher weather diplomatic crises and bring enemies together.
In 1995, he intervened during the crucial final days of the U.S.-brokered Bosnian peace talks at Dayton, Ohio. He had an important role in closing the deal, according to his deputy, Richard Holbrooke, the force behind the agreement.
As president Jimmy Carter's deputy secretary of state, he negotiated the release of 52 Americans taken hostage at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979.
The hostages were freed on Jan. 20, 1981, minutes after Ronald Reagan was sworn in to succeed Carter.
Warren Christopher, Secretary of State and NewsHour Regular, Dies at Age 85
Michael D. Mosettig
The PBS Newshour
03/21/2011
Of all the occupants of the lofty seventh-floor offices of the Secretary of State, perhaps none wanted to appear on the NewsHour more than Warren Christopher, whose death was announced Saturday morning.
As secretary during President Clinton's first term, Christopher was a guest on the program countless times to explain what the administration was trying to accomplish in two particular hotspots -- Bosnia and the Middle East. The NewsHour was without a doubt his favorite media venue, often to the frustration of beat reporters covering the State Department for other news organizations.
Christopher served three Democratic presidents -- Lyndon Johnson, Jimmy Carter and Clinton -- in numerous difficult assignments that required his lawyerly and low-key finesse. But the most searing time for him in office was the endless negotiation in 1980 up until the last day of the Carter administration on Jan 20, 1981, to obtain the release of the U.S. Embassy hostages from Iran. He became a regular commuter to Algeria, which was acting as middleman. In his memoirs, he referred to the "bazaar behavior" of the Iranian negotiators, but he could just as well have meant "bizarre," because he was dealing with a regime in the early stages of a revolution, several of whose principals later ended up executed or in exile. Years later, as Secretary of State, it seemed the only thing that could perturb his usual unperturbable demeanor was mentioning Iran. I recall a background White House briefing with him on a totally different subject, but Iran came up. His face muscles tightened, his eyes darkened and he dismissed out of hand the possibility of dealing with the clerical regime of Tehran. Little surprise that no Iran initiatives were undertaken during his time as Secretary. His successor Madeleine Albright was left to pick up the strings of that tattered relationship, but with little luck.
Like Christopher, Albright had a long history as a NewsHour guest preceding her tenure as secretary. But like most of her predecessors and successors, she spread her interviews around the journalistic panorama.
But not Christopher. If he wanted to talk, he came on the NewsHour. To the point that AP reporter Barry Schweid once complained to me, "I am thinking of moving my desk to Shirlington (the NewsHour's Virginia headquarters outside Washington)."
Indeed, even Christopher's staff also tried to get him around to other outlets. Once the secretary agreed to do an interview at CNN studios near the Capitol. They showed up in late afternoon, shortly before the scheduled hit time. But this was the era of OJ Simpson, when even the smallest twist in the story was bulletin material in for that cable outlet. Christopher's interview kept getting pushed back and back some more. Three hours later, it took place in abbreviated form.
On the drive back to Foggy Bottom, the secretary turned to his staffers and said, "The next time, can I go back to the NewsHour?" There was little they could offer in the way of argument.
Warren Christopher, Former Secretary of State, Dies at 85
Adam Smit
ThirdAge.com
03/19/2011
Former Secretary of State Warren Christopher speaks during a news conference held by the National War Powers Commission ... Read Moreto release findings and recommendations on the War Powers Act of 1973 on Capitol Hill in Washington on July 8, 2008.
Source: UPI Photo/Patrick D. McDermott Click to Enlarge.Warren Christopher, Secretary of State during President Bill Clinton's first term, died at his home in Los Angeles Friday of complications from kidney and bladder cancer. He was 85.
Mr. Christopher is best known for his role negotiating with Tehran in the 1980 Iran hostage crisis, which saw the hostages released.
Characterized as “dour, attentive to detail, patient, steady and poised, but rarely, if ever, charismatic” by a profile in the Washington Post, Mr. Christopher was known as a man of iron resolve and unflappability. He shrunk from the spotlight of his high-profile office and was extremely circumspect with regards to weighty decisions. He was once jokingly identified by Clinton as “the only man ever to eat presidential M&Ms with a knife and fork.”
People magazine featured him as one of the best-dressed men in America, and quoted him as saying that dressing well “is a mark of the respect you have for others.”
While in office, Warren Christopher dealt with such crises as the Bosnian war and the 1994 ethnic killings in Rwanda. In the latter conflict, Christopher balked at using the term “genocide” to describe the slaughter of 800,000 Tutsis, a mistake for which President Clinton would formally apologize in 1998.
Mr. Christopher, who came from humble beginnings, being forced to support his four siblings at an early age, served in the Navy and was educated and Stanford Law School before going on to become a lawyer, speechwriter, and eventually Secretary of State. He is survived by his wife, Marie, and several children.
Warren Christopher Dies At Age 85
Weekend Edition Saturday
NPR
March 19, 2011
Click HERE to listen to the briefing:
http://www.npr.org/2011/03/19/134686005/warren-christopher-dies-at-age-85Transcript: March 19, 2011 Christopher — a former U.S. Secretary of State in the Clinton administration — died late Friday. Christopher was a key figure in peace efforts in Bosnia and the Mideast.
SIMON: Warren Christopher was a famously meticulous man. When he stepped down as President Clintons Secretary of State the president referred to him as the only man ever to eat M&Ms on Air Force One with a fork.
Warren Christopher died last night at the age 85 at home in Los Angeles. He was the son of a North Dakota bank clerk who became blue chip LA lawyer in splendid suits and a famously self-effacing diplomat.
He meticulously negotiated the NAFTA trade agreement with Canada and Mexico and expanded NATO to include former enemies. He was accused of being slow to recognize genocide in Bosnia, but was lauded for his report to reform the Los Angeles Police Department after the beating of Rodney King. President Jimmy Carter conferred the Medal of Freedom on Warren Christopher and called him the best public servant I ever knew.
SIMON: And you’re listening to NPR News.
Secretary of State Warren Christopher Dies at 85
KTLA News
03/19/2011
LOS ANGELES (KTLA) -- Former Secretary of State Warren Christopher died in his home late Friday night of complications from bladder and kidney cancer. He was 85.
Christopher was applauded for his efforts to promote peace in the Middle East by urging a ban on nuclear weapons tests and extending curbs on proliferation of weapons technology. He traveled to the region often, making some two dozen trips to Syria to encourage a peace settlement with Israel.
He was successful in producing a settlement in 1995 for Bosnia, ending a war that drove some 1.8 million Muslims, Serbs and Croats from their homes and took the lives of 1.8 million others.
Christopher expanded U.S. economic ties to Asia and urged for reform in Russia.
Closer to home, Christopher headed a panel that perpetuated LAPD reforms following the March 1991 Rodney King beating, including installing cameras in patrol cars.
A loyal democrat, Christopher supervised the contested Florida recount for AL Gore in the 2000 presidential election, in which the Supreme Court decided on George W. Bush on a 5-4 vote.
Christopher received his undergraduate degree from the University of Southern California in 1945 and went on to attend Stanford Law School. He served as a clerk to Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas in 1949 and 1950.
He became a deputy attorney general in the Lyndon Johnson administration in the late 1960s.
He is survived by his wife Marie and four children in two marriages: Lynn, Scott, Thomas, and Kristen.
Warren Christopher, ex-secretary of state, dies
San Francisco Gate
03/20/2011
Warren Christopher, the courtly and reserved secretary of state in President Bill Clinton's first term and the chief negotiator for the 1981 release of American hostages in Iran, died Friday night in Los Angeles. He was 85.
A spokeswoman for O'Melveny & Myers, the law firm where Mr. Christopher was a senior partner, announced his death, saying he had been ill with kidney and bladder cancer.
Methodical and self-effacing, Mr. Christopher alternated for almost five decades between top echelons of both the federal government and legal and political life in California.
He served as the Carter administration’s point man with Congress in winning ratification of the Panama Canal treaties and presided over the normalization of diplomatic relations with China.
He also handled the agonizing and prolonged negotiations for the release of 52 hostages held in the U.S. Embassy in Tehran for more than a year after the 1979 Iranian revolution.
At home, Mr. Christopher investigated racial unrest in Detroit and in the Watts district of Los Angeles and later headed a 1991 commission that proposed major reforms of the Los Angeles Police Department after riots prompted by the beating of black motorist Rodney King.
Warren Minor Christopher was born Oct. 27, 1925, in the farming hamlet of Scranton, N.D., one of five children.
Though widely admired for his evenhandedness and equanimity, Mr. Christopher was also criticized as lacking passionate, big-picture diplomatic vision. Even friends and associates, to whom he was known as Chris or sometimes as "the Cardinal," said they could not discern a guiding geopolitical philosophy, regarding him as more a consummate tactician than a conceptualizer.
After giving way to Madeleine Albright after one term as secretary of state, Mr. Christopher again returned to O’Melveny & Myers and civic and political life in California. He served as president of Stanford’s board of trustees and was a longtime director of the Southern California Edison Co.
Mr. Christopher also supervised the recount of disputed votes in Florida for Democrat Al Gore before Republican George W. Bush emerged the winner by a 5-4 decision of the Supreme Court.
Mr. Christopher is survived by his wife of 54 years, the former Marie Wyllis, a teacher; and by their three children and five grandchildren. He had another child from an earlier marriage.
After leaving public service, Mr. Christopher continued to speak out on international issues. In 2002, in an opinion piece in the New York Times, he urged that President Bush rethink "his fixation on attacking Iraq" and focus on what Mr. Christopher considered graver threats, such as North Korea.
Aloha to former U.S. statesman, Warren Christopher
Hawaii News Now
03/20/2011 Former United States Secretary of State, Warren Christopher, has died.
The 85 year old statesman died from complications from kidney and bladder cancer, surrounded by his family in California.
Christopher served under President Clinton, and is credited with bringing peace to Bosnia and negotiating the release of American hostages from Iran in 1981.
President Obama credited Christopher by describing him as a "skillful diplomat," and a "faithful American."
Warren Christopher is survived by his wife, four children, and five grandchildren.
U.S. Former Secretary of State Warren Christopher Dies
Latin American Herald Tribune
03/20/2011
WASHINGTON – Warren Christopher, who served as U.S. secretary of state during President Bill Clinton’s first term and negotiated the 1979 release of 52 American hostages in Iran, has died in California. He was 85.
Christopher “passed away peacefully, surrounded by family at his home in Los Angeles” from complications of kidney and bladder cancer, according to a communique issued late Friday by his family and published Saturday in local media.
President Barack Obama said in a statement from the White House that “Warren Christopher was a skillful diplomat, a steadfast public servant, and a faithful American” who was “deeply dedicated to serving his country.”
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also said in a communique Saturday that she was “deeply saddened” by the death of her predecessor.
“The longer I spend in this job, the deeper my appreciation grows for the giants who came before”, Clinton said, and described Christopher as “a diplomat’s diplomat – talented, dedicated and exceptionally wise.”
She also called him “a dear friend. I relied on his advice and experience over many years.”
A man of few words who considered the ability to listen a “secret weapon,” he alternated for almost five decades between highly responsible positions in the U.S. government and his profession as an attorney.
As head of American diplomacy between 1993 and 1997, he was instrumental in achieving a peace settlement in Bosnia and undertook countless peace missions in the Middle East.
The achievements of his long professional career also include his work on the Panama Canal treaties and presiding over the normalizing of diplomatic relations with China.
But he is perhaps best remembered for his tireless struggle as deputy secretary of state to win the release of 52 American hostages confined to the U.S. Embassy in Tehran after the Iranian revolution of 1979.
Christopher, a reserved, generally unemotional man, broke into tears after forging the release agreement in late 1980.
The 52 Americans were held captive for 444 days, from Nov. 4, 1979, until Jan. 20, 1981.
These accomplishments won him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.
Born on Oct. 27, 1925, in the agricultural town of Scranton, North Dakota, the man who would become a diplomat par excellence, known in political circles for his politeness and elegant attire, grew up in a household where money was in short supply.
His father, a bank teller, died at 53 of a stroke that his family blamed on the headaches of trying to maintain solvency during the years of the Great Depression.
The family moved to California after their father’s death, and their mother, a salesclerk, took over the supporting and upbringing of the five youngsters.
Young Christopher showed a talent for learning that enabled him to graduate from Stanford Law School in California – the first step of a long career that early on won him a post as law clerk for Supreme Court Justice William Douglas between 1949 and 1950.
Several other steps led to his joining the prestigious Los Angeles law firm of O’Melveny & Myers, where he accumulated a substantial fortune.
His critics accused him of being a mediocre strategist lacking in vision. He never minded admitting that he was a better executor than he was a strategist.
Christopher was married to Marie Wyllis, a retired teacher, which whom he shared the last 54 years of his life, and with whom he had three children. The ex-diplomat had another son from a previous marriage and five grandchildren.
U.S. Former Secretary of State Warren Christopher Dies
Associated Press, San Jose Mercury News
03/20/2011
WASHINGTON – Warren Christopher, who served as U.S. secretary of state during President Bill Clinton’s first term and negotiated the 1979 release of 52 American hostages in Iran, has died in California. He was 85.
Christopher “passed away peacefully, surrounded by family at his home in Los Angeles” from complications of kidney and bladder cancer, according to a communique issued late Friday by his family and published Saturday in local media.
President Barack Obama said in a statement from the White House that “Warren Christopher was a skillful diplomat, a steadfast public servant, and a faithful American” who was “deeply dedicated to serving his country.”
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also said in a communique Saturday that she was “deeply saddened” by the death of her predecessor.
“The longer I spend in this job, the deeper my appreciation grows for the giants who came before”, Clinton said, and described Christopher as “a diplomat’s diplomat – talented, dedicated and exceptionally wise.”
She also called him “a dear friend. I relied on his advice and experience over many years.”
A man of few words who considered the ability to listen a “secret weapon,” he alternated for almost five decades between highly responsible positions in the U.S. government and his profession as an attorney.
As head of American diplomacy between 1993 and 1997, he was instrumental in achieving a peace settlement in Bosnia and undertook countless peace missions in the Middle East.
The achievements of his long professional career also include his work on the Panama Canal treaties and presiding over the normalizing of diplomatic relations with China.
But he is perhaps best remembered for his tireless struggle as deputy secretary of state to win the release of 52 American hostages confined to the U.S. Embassy in Tehran after the Iranian revolution of 1979.
Christopher, a reserved, generally unemotional man, broke into tears after forging the release agreement in late 1980.
The 52 Americans were held captive for 444 days, from Nov. 4, 1979, until Jan. 20, 1981.
These accomplishments won him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.
Born on Oct. 27, 1925, in the agricultural town of Scranton, North Dakota, the man who would become a diplomat par excellence, known in political circles for his politeness and elegant attire, grew up in a household where money was in short supply.
His father, a bank teller, died at 53 of a stroke that his family blamed on the headaches of trying to maintain solvency during the years of the Great Depression.
The family moved to California after their father’s death, and their mother, a salesclerk, took over the supporting and upbringing of the five youngsters.
Young Christopher showed a talent for learning that enabled him to graduate from Stanford Law School in California – the first step of a long career that early on won him a post as law clerk for Supreme Court Justice William Douglas between 1949 and 1950.
Several other steps led to his joining the prestigious Los Angeles law firm of O’Melveny & Myers, where he accumulated a substantial fortune.
His critics accused him of being a mediocre strategist lacking in vision. He never minded admitting that he was a better executor than he was a strategist.
Christopher was married to Marie Wyllis, a retired teacher, which whom he shared the last 54 years of his life, and with whom he had three children. The ex-diplomat had another son from a previous marriage and five grandchildren.
Former Secretary of State Warren Christopher dies at 85
KELLY ZHOU
The Daily Bruin news blog
03/20/2011 Warren Christopher, former Secretary of State, died Friday because of complications from bladder and kidney cancer. In 2002, Christopher taught an Honors Collegium class at UCLA.
Christopher, an esteemed diplomat, was involved with Middle East peace talks and relations with China, among many other international issues. As Deputy Secretary of State under President Jimmy Carter, he helped ensure the release of 52 American hostages in Iran.
Christopher taught an Honors Collegium class at UCLA, “International Flash Points,” which concentrated on hot spots such as North Korea, Colombia and Sudan.
“The course developed from conversations and emails that I exchanged with (then)Vice Provost Geoff Garrett and (then assistant provost of honors programs) Jennifer Wilson, and they encouraged me to do it,” Christopher said in a 2002 Daily Bruin article.
According to the L.A. Times, Christopher is survived by his second wife, the former Marie Wyllis; and their three children, Scott Thomas and Kristen. He is also survived by a daughter from his first marriage, Lynn Collins; and five grandchildren.
Former US Secretary of State Warren Christopher Dies
Voice of America
03/19/2011 Former U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher, who brokered the 1981 release of American hostages in Iran, has died of complications from kidney and bladder cancer.
The 85-year-old former top American diplomat was at his home in California, surrounded by family at the time of his death on Friday night.
For five decades he played a key role in American civic and public life, as a lawyer or negotiating foreign policy crises and helping investigate and resolve contentious U.S. domestic and political issues.
In tribute, President Barack Obama called Christopher "a resolute pursuer of peace," as well as a "skillful diplomat" and "steadfast public servant."
Christopher served as secretary of state from 1993 to 1997, in the first administration of Democrat Bill Clinton.
Christopher was known for his even-handed demeanor and as a tactician. He was often called on by American leaders to represent the U.S. in the most difficult international disputes during the 1980s and 1990s. In his 2001 book, "Chances of a Lifetime: A Memoir," Christopher said he viewed himself as a "steward, not proprietor, of an extraordinary public trust."
Even before becoming America's 63rd secretary of state in 1993, he played a crucial role in helping resolve the lengthy Iranian hostage crisis on the day that Ronald Reagan became the U.S. president in January 1981. He negotiated the release of 52 Americans who had been held by Tehran for 444 days. Their capture and failed attempts to rescue them played a key role in Mr. Reagan's presidential victory over then-President Jimmy Carter.
Over the years, Christopher also helped win U.S. congressional ratification of treaties returning American control of the Panama Canal to local authorities, presided over the normalization of U.S. diplomatic relations with China and negotiated repeated disputes in the Middle East and Balkans.
In the U.S., he investigated racial conflicts in the midwest city of Detroit and the California city of Los Angeles. He later headed a 1991 commission proposing reforms of the Los Angeles police department following riots that occurred after the police beating of an African-American motorist.
In 2000, Christopher supervised the Florida recount of disputed votes in that year's presidential election between then-Vice President Al Gore and Texas Governor George W. Bush. After a lengthy dispute, Mr. Bush emerged the winner under a U.S. Supreme Court decision and went on to serve two terms in the White House.
Warren Christopher, Former Secretary of State Instrumental In LAPD Reform, Dies at 85
LAist.com
03/20/2011 A powerful advocate for peace during the Clinton Administration and a key force behind LAPD reforms following the Rodney King beating, former Secretary of State Warren Christopher died of complications from bladder and kidney cancer late Friday night at his home in Los Angeles. He was 85.
Christopher promoted peace in the Middle East, brokered peace Bosnia, expanded economic ties to Asia, and pushed for reform in Russia, reports KTLA, while here in California "Christopher headed a panel that perpetuated LAPD reforms following the March 1991 Rodney King beating, including installing cameras in patrol cars."
In 1945 Christopher received his undergraduate degree from the University of Southern California and before attending Stanford Law School. In 1949 and 1950, he served as a clerk to Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas and "became a deputy attorney general in the Lyndon Johnson administration in the late 1960s," reports KTLA. "A loyal democrat, Christopher supervised the contested Florida recount for AL Gore in the 2000 presidential election," as well, in which the Supreme Court, in a 5-4 vote, decided on George W. Bush.
Christopher is survived by his second wife Marie and their three children, Scott, Thomas and Kristen. He also is survived by a daughter from his first marriage, Lynn Collins, and five grandchildren, reports the LA Times.
Diplomat Brought Home Hostages, Returned Canal
Stephen Miller
The Wall Street Journal
03/21/2011
Mr. Christopher, who died Friday at age 85, was an impassive and courtly figure who was a confidant and troubleshooter for Democratic presidents from Lyndon B. Johnson to Mr. Clinton.
He was also a close associate of candidate Al Gore in the 2000 presidential election, but failed to sway the Supreme Court as general of Mr. Gore's battle over the Florida recount.
In his Senate confirmation hearings for the secretary of state in 1993, not long after the Soviet Union had crumbled leaving the U.S. the sole standing superpower, Mr. Christopher called for "an entirely new foreign policy for a world that's fundamentally changed."
But rather than pursuing a lofty and ambitious program, his four years at Foggy Bottom were consumed confronting a series of regional issues that seemed to foreshadow America's unsettled years to come. Among these was nation building in Haiti; humanitarian intervention followed by chaos in Somalia; and ethnic cleansing in Bosnia, where a much-delayed effort culminated with the Dayton peace accords.
His practical approach perhaps stemmed from his background as a lawyer, steeped in the art of negotiation. It was with deals in Panama and Iran that he had his greatest successes, though his dozens of flights to Israel and Syria yielded little more in the way of lasting peace than those of his purportedly more visionary predecessors.
"My charge had been to serve as the steward, not the proprietor, of extraordinary public trust," Mr. Christopher wrote in a 2001 memoir.
Born in Scranton, N.D., Mr. Christopher was the son of a local banker. He later said he was deeply affected by accompanying his father to Depression-era foreclosure sales of farms.
He served in the Navy during World War II and attended Stanford Law School, where he was founding editor of the law review. After graduating in 1949, he worked for Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, who advised his ambitious young clerk to "get out into the stream of history and swim as fast as you can." Mr. Christopher joined the Los Angeles law firm of O'Melveny & Myers, where he worked for the remainder of his career when not in government service.
Mr. Christopher became a speechwriter and special counsel for California Gov. Pat Brown, who in 1965 appointed him to a commission investigating the causes of the Watts riots. This brought him an appointment as deputy U.S. attorney general specializing in riots, including the 1968 Chicago riot at the Democratic National Convention. Nearly a quarter-century later, Mr. Christopher spearheaded a commission that investigated the riots following the beating of Rodney King by Los Angeles police. The commission's report sparked widespread reforms and the resignation of Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl Gates.
President Jimmy Carter's secretary of state, Cyrus Vance, selected Mr. Christopher as his deputy, and assigned him at first to the Panama Canal treaty, then to a variety of delicate missions including informing Taiwan that the U.S. was normalizing relations with mainland China.
But it was the hostage negotiations that were Mr. Christopher's most dramatic triumph.
Mr. Vance resigned in the wake of a failed rescue attempt, and Mr. Christopher was at first bitterly disappointed to be passed over for secretary of state. But instead he flew to Algiers, where he spent months negotiating with tactics that included threatening to storm out, and warning the captors that the incoming president, Ronald Reagan, might prove a less reliable negotiator.
The hostages were finally freed at the moment of Ronald Reagan's inauguration, and Mr. Christopher met them as they headed home from Algiers. "There were very few people with dry eyes, and I was not one of them," he told a crowd of reporters the next day, as he left the State Department to make way for a new crop of Reagan appointees.
It was an uncharacteristic moment of emotion for the stolid diplomat who was normally so suave in his pinstripe suits that People magazine in 1993 named him to its annual 10-best-dressed list.
But he had at least one other moment of pop-culture adulation. In an episode of "The Simpsons," bartender Moe Szyslak complained about the state of the world in the mid-1990s
"There's not even any wars no more, thank you very much Warren Christopher."
A Goodbye to Warren Christopher
Mark Steinberg
The Huffington Post
03/21/2011 I'm going to miss Chris. I miss him already.
He was much more than my friend and mentor. He was one of a diminishing breed of Americans who believe that public service is more than a resume builder. They see it -- he saw it -- as a trust, a stewardship.
Warren Christopher was not a man of Washington. On completing his service -- as Deputy Attorney General in the Johnson Administration; as Deputy Secretary of State in the Carter Administration; as Secretary of State in the Clinton Administration -- he came home to Los Angeles, the true center of his universe.
Watching Chris work was a lesson in discipline. First and foremost, he was someone who thought before he acted. To paraphrase a Dutch saying, he was a man who did not go out on the first night's ice. But once he decided on his course, he skated circles around the rest of us.
Perhaps the best-known example of how Warren Christopher attacked seemingly intractable problems was his negotiation of the release of 52 American hostages held by Iran for 444 days. Under unrelenting pressure from the White House, news media and the hostage families, he encamped in Algiers and became, in essence, a diplomatic monk. Working through an Algerian intermediary, for months he conducted excruciating two-steps-forward-one-step-back negotiations. On several occasions he believed the deal was closed, only to find that the Iranians wanted something different or something more. The tension and frustration lasted until the penultimate moment. And when the hostages were finally freed on January 20, 1981, the cameras turned not to the person who had won their freedom, but to the front of the U.S. Capitol, where Ronald Reagan was being sworn in as the 40th president of the United States.
Chris was fine with that. His interest was in solving problems, not in leaving footprints. He didn't lust for attention or credit. In his writing he went to pains to avoid excessive use of the personal pronoun, a practice he referred to as an "I" infection. He was also extraordinarily generous in crediting or sharing credit with others for accomplishments he could rightly have claimed solely for himself. A notable example was his handling of what many regarded as an impossible task he undertook at the request of the mayor of Los Angeles, the late Tom Bradley.
In the wake of Rodney King's beating at the hands of LAPD officers, Bradley knew he had little time to begin reweaving the fabric of Los Angeles. He decided to form The Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department, defining as its charter the investigation of the events surrounding the King incident and the assessment of whether there were systemic problems in the LAPD that may have given rise to it.
Bradley asked a group of prominent, politically diverse citizens to sit on the Commission, then asked Chris to lead it. The press quickly began to refer to the group as the "Christopher Commission," a shorthand he found aggrandizing and embarrassing.
He convened the group immediately. Three months later the Commission issued a 297-page unanimous report calling for the resignation of the chief of police and setting out extensive recommendations for reforming the LAPD. With quiet patience and determination, Christopher had managed to forge a consensus that astonished every politician and activist in the city.
Characteristically, he resisted any suggestion that he'd been the one who made it all happen, never revealing the ego massaging and gentle arm-twisting that he'd employed to bring every member on board. At a press conference on the day the Commission's report was released, a reporter asked him how he had managed to convince the entire Christopher Commission to sign on to the findings. His response was quintessential Chris: he reminded the reporter that the name of the group was the Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department, not the Christopher Commission, and that each of its members had independently concluded that the evidence was clear and compelling.
Chris' iconic status as a public servant prompted local and national leaders to call upon him again and again for counsel on difficult questions. When in 2009 it fell to Mayor Villaraigosa to appoint a new Chief of the LAPD, he asked Chris to lead a body of distinguished citizens to advise him. When a commission was formed in 2007 to recommend a way that the president and Congress might work more effectively when faced with the question of whether to commit the nation to conflict, Warren Christopher joined former Secretary of State James Baker in co-chairing the group.
Working with Chris, whether on a legal or a diplomatic problem, was a singular experience. As both a lawyer and diplomat, his ability to predict what was coming around the next corner was extraordinary. In both roles he believed that the key to success was listening, listening very carefully, to the person across the table. His strategy was to maximize opportunities for an opponent to reveal gaps in his reasoning or subtle changes in position. When he found such opportunities, he exploited them deftly and quietly to the advantage of his client, or his country.
He was a news connoisseur, and he knew which journalists were the best at what they did. His typical question was not whether you'd seen a story or column on a particular subject, but whether you'd seen the piece by reporter X or columnist Y. He respected expertise in every discipline, and he knew the real thing when he saw it.
The press, in general, didn't get beneath the surface of the man. They quickly decided that he was dry, humorless and impenetrable. Perhaps it was the fact that he didn't talk in sound bites. Perhaps it was because he was less interested in stirring banquet audience than in attacking the next problem.
More likely, I think, it was the fact that Chris was not someone who kissed and told. When powerful people sought his counsel, what they wanted and got in Warren Christopher was someone with extraordinary judgment who could be trusted to hold close their problems and decisions. It was a character trait that insured the press would devote little time or attention to fleshing out the second and third dimensions of the man.
During his lifetime, scores of people sought help from Chris, ranging from young people wanting career advice, to movers and shakers looking for someone to resolve Byzantine, high stakes disputes. He was generous with his help, more generous than many of the beneficiaries knew.
But he took special pleasure in giving his help to those who would never have thought to ask for it. His law firm's decision to honor his retirement in 1994 by establishing a scholarship in his name presented such an opportunity, and he seized it with relish.
The people Chris wanted to help with the scholarships were talented kids in Los Angeles public high schools who, due to tough financial or family circumstances, were at risk of dropping out or ending their education after twelfth grade. After consultation with Los Angeles school district counselors and others in the community, the scholarship was framed as an annual promise to ten Los Angeles public high school sophomores that they would receive $5,000 for each of their four years in college.
To date, not a single Christopher Scholar has failed to graduate from high school, and virtually all have gone on to some of the finest undergraduate institutions in the country. Chris always said he was "gratified" by the success of the program. Anyone else would have used the word, "proud."
At a moment like this, the custom is to ask for a brief silence. But I'm pretty sure that's not what Chris would have wanted. Rather, he would have counseled us that a moment of silence is far too valuable a commodity to devote to a remembrance of things past. Instead, I think he'd tell us to use the moment to get on with solving the next problem that life places in our path.
Former Secretary of State Warren Christopher dies
Mark Feeney
Boston Globe
03/19/2011
Warren M. Christopher, whose four years as secretary of state under Bill Clinton capped a career that saw him hold senior posts in three Democratic administrations, died Friday night in Los Angeles. He was 85.
A spokeswoman for O'Melveny & Myers, the law firm where he was a senior partner, said Mr. Christopher died of complications from bladder and kidney cancer.
President Obama said Saturday that he mourned the passing of a man who proved to be a "resolute pursuer of peace" and dedicated public servant.
"Warren Christopher was a skillful diplomat, a steadfast public servant, and a faithful American," the president said in a statement.
Mr. Christopher was the consummate insider: dapper, cautious, circumspect. “My career, reputation, and effectiveness,” he wrote in his 2001 memoirs “Chances of a Lifetime,” “derived from, and depended upon, my being a private, discreet, reserved, and sometimes modest person.”
In his autobiography, Clinton described Mr. Christopher as “the most disciplined man on the planet.”
It’s a mark of Mr. Christopher’s high reputation for dependability that Attorney General Elliott Richardson offered him the job of Watergate special prosecutor in 1973. It’s a mark of Mr. Christopher’s innate prudence that he declined.
Jimmy Carter, under whom Mr. Christopher served as deputy secretary of state, called him “the best public servant in the administration.”
Mr. Christopher’s critics argued that his virtues put him at a disadvantage at the highest reaches of statecraft, belonging more to a litigator than visionary or risk taker.
“He’s a mediator, used to a game with rules,” Richard Haass, a member of George H.W. Bush’s National Security Council, said of Mr. Christopher in a 1993 interview with Time magazine. “He believes that if you look hard enough, you will find a common denominator out of which you can gradually construct some kind of edifice. It’s very reactive.”
Such a professional style was in keeping with his personal style. The ever-businesslike Mr. Christopher was unswervingly uncharismatic. Needing a comic speech, California Gov. Edmund G. Brown Sr. turned to Mr. Christopher, who had written his inaugural address. Mr. Christopher tackled the job with his usual assiduousness. He soon realized, though, as he put it in his memoirs, “‘funny’ was not a part, nor was it ever likely to become a part, of my oeuvre.”
It seemed apt that what drew the most notice during his tenure at Foggy Bottom was his tendency to occasionally nod off in public.
In one sense, Mr. Christopher belonged to a longstanding tradition: the white-shoe lawyer who shuttled between government service and private practice. Yet his career demonstrated how much that tradition had changed.
Unlike such secretaries of state as Dean Acheson and John Foster Dulles, Mr. Christopher was no child of privilege or ornament of the Eastern establishment. He delivered newspapers to help support his family as a teenager and went on to become a pillar of business and political power in Los Angeles.
More important, Mr. Christopher shrank from the sweeping pronouncements and imperious actions of an Acheson or Dulles. It’s hard to imagine either man making the observation, as Mr. Christopher once did, “the more listening you do, the more people will trust you.”
It was a lesson learned on the Great Plains, in the small North Dakota town of Scranton. The son of Ernest W. Christopher, a banker, and Catharine Anna (Lemen) Christopher, a housewife, Warren Minor Christopher was born there on Oct 27, 1925.
He was 11 when his father was incapacitated by a stroke. His mother went to work as a sales clerk to support the family. In 1939, she moved with her husband and their five children to Hollywood to be near her mother.
As a student at Hollywood High School, Mr. Christopher excelled at debating. He won a debate scholarship to the University of Redlands, near Los Angeles, then enlisted in the Navy. He served as an ensign aboard a tanker in the Pacific.
Having earned his bachelor’s degree at the University of Southern California, Mr. Christopher entered Stanford University Law School in 1946. He was founding president of the law review. In his memoirs, Mr. Christopher recalled the dean describing to him how Acheson “combined private law practice with stints of public service, and he urged me to follow a similar course.”
After graduating in 1949, Mr. Christopher served as law clerk to US Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas. He was the first Stanford graduate named to a Supreme Court clerkship. He once asked Douglas if he had any advice for him. The justice did: “Get out into the stream of history and swim as fast as you can.”
Mr. Christopher joined the prestigious Los Angeles firm of O’Melveny & Myers as an associate. Other than time spent in Washington, he would remain there the rest of his life. He became a partner in 1958, served as chairman from 1982 to 1992, and became a senior partner in 1997.
In 1954, Mr. Christopher had helped Brown, who was then California’s attorney general, argue a case before the Supreme Court. Brown named him a special counsel after he was elected governor, in 1958, and appointed him vice chairman of the state commission investigating causes of the 1965 Watts riots.
Mr. Christopher’s experience dealing with urban unrest made him a natural selection as deputy attorney general in 1967. At the Justice Department, he oversaw the federal response to rioting in Detroit that year, as well as the turmoil that followed the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968.
Mr. Christopher had worked with Cyrus Vance, who was then deputy secretary of defense, on the Detroit riots. When Carter named Vance secretary of state, he asked Mr. Christopher to be deputy secretary of state. He served as the administration’s point man in its ultimately successful effort to earn Senate approval of the Panama Canal treaties and had the unenviable task of explaining to Taiwan the US decision to grant diplomatic recognition to China.
Carter would award him the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, for his work in negotiating the release of the 52 US hostages in Tehran. Carter did not, however, name him secretary of state, as Mr. Christopher had hoped, when Vance resigned in 1980. Instead, the job went to US Sen. Edmund S. Muskie (D-Maine).
In 1991, Mr. Christopher headed the commission that investigated the Los Angeles Police Department after after the beating of Rodney King. It was a tribute to Mr. Christopher’s negotiating skills that every member of the commission, even those appointed by LA Police Chief Darryl Gates, approved its report, which was highly critical of Gates. The commission’s recommendations for departmental reform won overwhelming approval in a June 1992 ballot referendum.
Later that year, Clinton asked Mr. Christopher to oversee his vice-presidential selection process, then chose him to be transition director for his incoming administration. Few were surprised when Clinton named him secretary of state.
Mr. Christopher’s tenure at state saw the peaceful restoration of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in Haiti, the signing of a comprehensive test ban treaty, the renewal and extension of the nuclear proliferation treaty, the expansion of NATO, and the opening of diplomatic relations with Vietnam. Perhaps its most significant accomplishment was the Dayton agreement, bringing peace in Bosnia, in 1995.
Yet that agreement underscored what many saw as both the most serious and emblematic failing of US diplomacy during the Mr. Christopher’s four years at the State Department: an unwillingness to engage in the Balkans. Tacitly acknowledging that failure, Mr. Christopher wrote in his memoirs, “We had relied unrealistically and for longer than was justifiable on our European allies to resolve the problems in Bosnia.” Also widely criticized was the administration’s handling of the humanitarian effort in Somalia begun under George H.W. Bush.
The most extraordinary diplomatic event of the first Clinton administration was the Israeli-Palestinian peace accords. Mr. Christopher had no involvement, other than to help preside over their signing. And when Shimon Peres, the Israeli foreign minister, offered to let the Clinton administration take credit for them, Mr. Christopher reacted with characteristic modesty and declined.
Mr. Christopher stepped down as secretary in 1997. He was succeeded by Madeleine Albright.
Al Gore asked Mr. Christopher to oversee the selection process for his vice-presidential candidate in 2000. After the election, he led the Gore recount effort in Florida.
Among the many private positions Mr. Christopher held were chairman of the federal judiciary committee of the American Bar Association, chairman of the Stanford University board of trustees, chairman of the Carnegie Corporation, director and vice chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations, and president of the Los Angeles County Bar Association.
Mr. Christopher leaves his wife of 54 years, Marie (Wyllis) Christopher; two daughters, Lynn Collins (from a previous marriage) and Kristen; two sons, Scott and Thomas; and five grandchildren
Warren Christopher and Barry Goldwater: Two of a kind, in one special way
Patt Morrison
Los Angeles Times: Opinion
March 21, 2011 Nearly a year and a half ago I had occasion to interview Warren Christopher for my Q&A column "Patt Morrison Asks."
As I thought about our conversation now, with the news of Christopher’s death, I found it curious that he reminded me of another formidable political figure I’d enjoyed interviewing years before –- Barry Goldwater, the longtime Arizona Republican senator and 1964 presidential candidate.
On the face of it this is odd, because of course their politics were pretty much opposite. And their public personalities were strikingly different. Christopher was courtly and cautious, as befits a diplomat; when I asked him about his most rewarding moments as secretary of State, he said, "I really don’t like to get into talking about things that are most rewarding. Pride is a real handicap; pride is a limitation. So I’d rather talk about the issues where there remains so much to be done."
Goldwater’s style was forceful, to say the least, and he was endowed, as I wrote of him, with a tongue like a branding iron. He and Christopher were warriors for what they believed in, but they also shared something missing from the virulent quarters of national politics today -- regard and respect for the other side, and the deep knowledge that political opponents are not the same as enemies. Christopher was a loyal Democrat who supervised the 2000 Bush v. Gore election recount; his hero was Gen. George Marshall, a man who understood that the ultimate goals of policy matter more than the short-lived triumphs of politics. And Goldwater was friends with men his party currently reviles -- Democrats John and Ted Kennedy, and Hubert Humphrey, and former Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee. They fought like cats and dogs, Goldwater told me, "but we always got along" -- and got things done.
So, gentlemen -- and I use the word deliberately -- ave atque vale, soon and late. We may not see your like again, but as you both knew, if we are to prosper as a nation, we must.
Deaths elsewhere: Warren Christopher, former secretary of state under Clinton
New York Times
03/20/2011
Warren Christopher, the courtly and reserved secretary of state in President Bill Clinton's first term and the chief negotiator for the 1981 release of American hostages in Iran, died Friday night in Los Angeles. He was 85.
A spokeswoman for O'Melveny & Myers, the law firm where Christopher was a senior partner, announced his death, saying he had been ill with cancer.
Christopher alternated for nearly five decades between top echelons of both the federal government and legal and political life in California. He served as the Carter administration's point man with Congress in winning ratification of the Panama Canal treaties, presided over the normalization of diplomatic relations with China and conducted repeated negotiations involving the Middle East and the Balkans.
At home, Christopher investigated racial unrest in Detroit and Los Angeles and later headed a 1991 commission that proposed major reforms of the Los Angeles Police Department after riots prompted by the beating of a black motorist, Rodney King.
As a political operative, he headed Clinton's 1992 search committee for a vice-presidential running mate, settling on Al Gore, and subsequently directed the transition team of the president-elect. Eight years later, when Gore was running for president, he directed the search resulting in the selection of Sen. Joseph Lieberman for the second spot on the Democratic ticket.
When the election became stalemated, Christopher supervised the recount ofdisputed votes in Florida before George W. Bush emerged the winner by decision of the Supreme Court.
Warren Minor Christopher was born Oct. 27, 1925, in the farming hamlet of Scranton, N.D., one of five children. His father, a banker, suffered a stroke that the family believed was a result of overwork from his unsuccessful efforts to keep the bank solvent during the Great Depression. The elder Christopher died four years later at 53 after the family moved to California.
Christopher's tenure in Washingon is most vividly remembered for the agonizing negotiations for the release of 52 hostages held in the American Embassy in Tehran for more than a year after the 1979 Iranian revolution.
Late in 1980, Christopher finally brokered a deal under which the hostages would be released in return for an unfreezing of Iranian assets and a lifting of sanctions.
Even after the agreement was signed on the last full day of the Carter presidency, Iran disavowed a vital element in it, and Christopher wrote in a 2006 article about lessons learned in dealing with what he called the "bazaar behavior" of Iranian negotiators.
"I directed the pilot of my plane, on a telephone line that I knew was tapped, to warm up the engines," he wrote. "The Iranians quickly dropped their claim and a day later the hostages were released."
The usually reserved Christopher wept at the ultimate success.
Warren Christopher, Lawyer and Ex-Secretary of State, Dies at Age 85
Debra Cassens Weiss
ABA Journal
03/21/2011
Former Secretary of State Warren Christopher has died at the age of 85.
The cause of death was kidney and bladder cancer, according to an announcement by Christopher’s law firm, O’Melveny & Myers. He was a senior partner there. The Washington Post, the New York Times and the Associated Press have obituaries.
Christopher served as secretary of state for President Clinton, conducting peace negotiations in Bosnia and the Middle East. He was deputy secretary of state in the Carter administration, helping win ratification of the Panama Canal treaties and the release of 52 American hostages in Iran. He also oversaw the Florida recount for 2000 presidential candidate Al Gore.
The Times described Christopher as “methodical and self-effacing” as well as “impeccably dressed and unfailingly polite.” His wardrobe led to inclusion in a People magazine article on the best-dressed men in America.
According to the Post, Christopher had been characterized as “dour, attentive to detail, patient, steady and poised, but rarely, if ever, charismatic. … No one was surprised when, on an official stopover in Ireland, he ordered Irish coffee, decaffeinated and without alcohol.”
Warren Christopher, overseer of Mideast talks, dies
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
March 21, 2011
(JTA) -- Warren Christopher, the U.S. Secretary of State whose intensive shuttling shepherded talks with Syria, Jordan and the Palestinians in the mid-1990s, has died.
Christopher died March 18 at home in Los Angeles of complications from cancer. He was 85.
As secretary of state under President Bill Clinton, Christopher traveled to the Middle East 18 times in an effort to bring peace to the region.
Christopher pressed negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, and oversaw the signing of the Oslo Accords between Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat in 1993.
Christopher also shepherded negotiations between Israel and Jordan, and attended the signing of a peace treaty between the two countries in 1994. He also worked to achieve peace between Israel and Syria.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called Christopher a "dear friend" in a statement released over the weekend.
"Warren was a diplomat's diplomat -- talented, dedicated and exceptionally wise," she said. "As well as anyone in his generation, he understood the subtle interplay of national interests, fundamental values and personal dynamics that drive diplomacy. America is safer and the world is more peaceful because of his service."
President Obama called Christopher a "resolute pursuer of peace," as well as "a skillful diplomat, a steadfast public servant and a faithful American."
Christopher "brought his strong intellect to bear on such pressing problems as the Iran hostage crisis, Israeli and Palestinian peace negotiations, the Bosnian war, and racial tensions in Los Angeles," said U.S. Rep. Howard Berman, the ranking Democrat on the House of Representatives' Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a statement.
Warren Christopher, circumspect negotiator
Bart Barnes
Special to The Washington Post
03/20/2011
Warren Christopher, who helped negotiate a settlement to the Iran hostage crisis in 1980 and who confronted the ethnic violence in the Balkans and Rwanda while serving as secretary of state during President Bill Clinton’s first term, died Friday at his home in Los Angeles of complications from kidney and bladder cancer. He was 85.
When Christopher became the 63rd U.S. secretary of state in 1993, he was already known to the public as an effective, if circumspect, negotiator who played a crucial role in brokering the release of the U.S. hostages in Tehran on the day Jimmy Carter yielded the presidency to Ronald Reagan in 1981.
Earlier, he had been the Carter administration’s point man in persuading the Senate to ratify the Panama Canal treaties, which eventually ceded U.S. control of the canal to Panama. He gained the support of crucial senators as the architect of a “reservation” giving the United States the right to protect the canal and then managed to persuade the Panamanians to accept the provision.
When he was named Clinton’s secretary of state, Christopher was considered the veteran hand who would complement the former Arkansas governor’s limited foreign policy experience.
Christopher’s primary responsibility was to ensure that crises in foreign policy did not undermine or interfere with the president’s domestic agenda. It was the first time in more than a half-century, Clinton would later say, that the United States was “without a single, overriding threat to our security.”
Writers and commentators characterized him as dour, attentive to detail, patient, steady and poised, but rarely, if ever, charismatic. Clinton once joked that Christopher was “the only man ever to eat presidential M&Ms with a knife and fork.” No one was surprised when, on an official stopover in Ireland, he ordered Irish coffee, decaffeinated and without alcohol.
In a normally high-profile office, Christopher shunned publicity, and he disliked being in the spotlight. It was on his watch as secretary that peace accords were reached in 1995 in Dayton, Ohio, ending a three-year war and ethnic slaughter in Bosnia, but much of the news media attention was focused on Assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke, who had handled the nitty-gritty of the negotiating. Christopher later described the agreement as “one of the greatest achievements in American diplomatic history.”
Almost four years after stepping down as secretary of state, Christopher, a senior adviser to Al Gore’s 2000 presidential campaign, returned to the public arena as chief of the team that litigated the results of the Florida recount.
But the lion’s share of public attention went to lawyer David Boies, who did most of the courtroom work. Ultimately, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of Republican George W. Bush, whose legal team was spearheaded by another former secretary of state, James Baker.
As secretary of state, Christopher told U.S. News & World Report that his “first priority” was to “attack problems before they reach the crisis level,” and to keep the United States from expending lives and fortune in international disputes.
“I’d much rather be known as somebody who was a preventer of crises than as a crisis manager,” he said.
But he had a tumultuous beginning. In May 1993, just months into his new job, Christopher went to Europe to solicit Allied support for a plan to end ethnic cleansing in the Balkans by arming Bosnian Muslim forces and launching airstrikes against Serbian targets. He was unsuccessful and returned to tell Congress that Bosnia had become “a problem from hell.”
In Somalia, what began as a humanitarian relief effort in the final days of the George H.W. Bush administration ended with the withdrawal of U.S. forces in March 1994 in the aftermath of the deaths of 18 U.S. soldiers in Mogadishu.
A month later, the Clinton administration became aware of a systematic slaughter in the African state of Rwanda that left an estimated 800,000 dead, most of them Tutsis. But the United States and other Western nations opted against intervention, and Christopher authorized State Department personnel to use the word “genocide” only under limited conditions.
Critics later contended that avoidance of the genocide characterization made it easier for the United States to follow a hands-off policy. In 1998, on a visit to the Rwandan capital of Kigali, Clinton said the United States had not acted quickly enough and apologized for not calling the killings genocide.
Editorial: Strength through subtlety
Los Angeles Times
03/20/2011
No major L.A. institution bears the name of Warren M. Christopher, but he surely left his mark.
The leaders of modern Los Angeles tend to come in types: There are those whose influence derives from their money, others from their position or their fame. Eli Broad and David Geffen, for example, have shaped the cultural landscape through the strategic use of their philanthropy. Tom Bradley and Richard Riordan re-imagined the city's inclusiveness and safety from the mayor's office. Cardinal Roger Mahony influenced events and leaders from the pulpit.
Then there was Warren M. Christopher. A working lawyer from a small town in Nebraska, Christopher was wealthy, to be sure, but not rich in the fashion of L.A.'s leading philanthropists. He never sought or held elective public office. Unlike Broad or Geffen, Riordan or Bradley, his name does not grace any major civic institution or public building.
And yet, the Los Angeles landscape is profoundly different for his life, which ended late Friday night. Guided into service by Justice William O. Douglas — Christopher was the first Stanford Law School alumnus to land a Supreme Court clerkship — he devoted himself to counseling the leaders of his long era. Pat Brown, Bradley, Riordan, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and four American presidents — Lyndon Johnson, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama — all turned to him for advice. He gave it discreetly and capably, guiding the appointments of Supreme Court justices and the search for peace in the Middle East. Christopher was of a school, lamentably not much in evidence these days, that emphasized decency and compromise, that searched for ways to solve problems rather than trounce foes.
His mark subtly lies on most aspects of life in this city. He counseled Riordan on school reform and charter reform. He was so instrumental to City Council President John Ferraro in that councilman's long, successful run of leadership that Ferraro rarely took a big step without him. And Bradley turned to Christopher at the most crucial moment of his mayoralty, when the city rose in fury at the videotape of Los Angeles police officers beating a fleeing motorist named Rodney G. King.
That last experience is illustrative of how Christopher worked. In 1965, he had served as vice chairman of former CIA Director John McCone's commission to unravel the causes of the Watts riots. The McCone Commission reached high — broadly examining the influence of urban poverty and other social crises to explain the violence that ensued. But by addressing so much, that commission accomplished relatively little.
In 1991, Christopher deliberately chose another route. His commission confined itself to racism and brutality within the LAPD and to the leadership structure that did too little to root out those problems. The commission produced a focused set of reforms, and voters approved them. Today's LAPD continues to operate under those rules and continues to improve under them.
Tellingly, the Christopher Commission is known by that name only informally. Christopher always referred to it by its correct name, the Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department. Even Christopher's most concrete contribution to this city does not bear his name. He did not want it to.
Chris
Legal Bisnow DC
03/21/2011
He may not have been a Washington lawyer technically, but Warren Christopher, who passed Friday at age 85 from bladder and kidney cancer, sure did seem like one during his long and storied career in and out of government here in DC.
Chris, as many called him, proved you can go home again, and not just to Wall Street, as many revolving political officials do; he was of course an institution across the country at O’Melveny on the other coast. And we would say it’s the end of an era, but his protégé Tom Donilon, now national security adviser, seems teed up to continue some of the tradition. President Clinton’s Secretary of State and Carter’s number two in Foggy Bottom, Christopher notched a place in history for a wide range of achievements from Balkan peace negotiations and negotiating the release of American hostages in Iran to chairing a review of the Rodney King assault. Yes, some joked when he was appointed that Christopher was “Cyrus Vance without the charisma” (for those of you too young to remember, Vance’s hallmark was not charisma), but to many this was the mark of his excellence: a model of modesty, earnestness, and diligence for those whose passion is to serve their country. In lieu of flowers, the family asks those who wish to honor him to consider making donations to the Warren Christopher Scholarship Fund through the California Community Foundation.
Remembering Warren Christopher: A Diplomat 'Unfailingly Willing to Take Hits'
James Gibney
The Atlantic, National Journal
March 21, 2011
The first time I met Warren Christopher was one of the only times I ever heard him make a wisecrack. We were at the first Summit of the Americas in Miami, sipping piña coladas on the veranda as our Tommy Bahama shirts flapped in the warm breeze.... Scratch that: It was a poorly lit hotel suite with nervous men and women in nondescript suits milling about, waiting for a meeting to begin. I was one of Christopher's speechwriters for two years, and Miami was my first road trip. Christopher sat down, and an over-perky Joan Spero, the Undersecretary of State for Economic Affairs, chirped, "We have a great summit program for you, Mr. Secretary!" Christopher, who had just flown in from another multilateral circus in Europe, rubbed his eyes and groaned, "That's what they told me in Budapest."
Christopher, who died yesterday, was the consummate American lawyer-diplomat, impeccably buttoned up and, beneath his bespoke suits and shirts, passionately dedicated to his country. The New York Times obituary touches on some of the thankless tasks he took on abroad and at home: the Iranian hostage crisis, the Panama Canal treaties, managing relations with Taiwan in the U.S. normalization of ties with China, dealing with riots and police brutality in Los Angeles, Detroit, and Chicago, running Clinton's transition team. Bizarrely, however, the Times all but ignores his odometer-busting shuttle diplomacy in the Middle East during the 1990s, and his role in the negotiations to end the war in Bosnia (for all Richard Holbrooke's showmanship, the talks would not have succeeded without Christopher's tireless patience--and occasional, strategic bursts of anger).
There are two raps on Christopher: that he was insufficiently geostrategic and that he was reluctant to recommend a resort to force over diplomacy. The first charge is the F1 key of armchair strategists; the second ignores the role of the secretary of state. But even if they're both somewhat true, the events of the last decade are a reminder that forceful geostrategy can be a blueprint for disaster. For my part, I saw a diplomat who was reluctant to make promises that America couldn't keep--his speech mark-ups routinely excised any "bear-any-burden, pay-any-price" rhetoric--and who was unfailingly willing to take hits (and given Bill Clinton's foreign policy learning curve, he took a lot of them). During one particularly rocky patch in U.S.-China relations, I remember Christopher's top advisers arguing over whether to announce high-level talks with the Chinese. "It'll get us front-page news," said Tom Donilon, Christopher's chief of staff and now Obama's national security adviser. "The Republicans will kill us," responded Jim Steinberg, the director of Policy Planning and now Hillary Clinton's deputy secretary of state. Christopher poked his head in through the paneled door leading to his office and settled the matter: "We talk to the Russians all the time. We should talk to the Chinese. It's the right thing to do."
I never saw Warren Christopher "eat presidential M&M's with a knife and fork," as Clinton said in his farewell remarks for him. I did see him stroll through the Brazilian rainforest in cream trousers with creases sharp enough to cut through the jungle, and white, red-whoosh Nike sneakers that looked like they'd just come out of the box. Mr. Casual he was not. But as my colleague Jim Fallows has observed, he was more strong than dull. And not only was he loyal to his presidents, he was unfailingly loyal and decent to the people who worked for him.
Back before public service devolved into a way-station for lucrative lobbying jobs, Americans like Warren Christopher kept this country strong. As he put it in his own penned-in words at Andrews Air Force Base, when he had the horrible task of receiving the bodies of three close colleagues killed in Bosnia (Bob Frasure, Joe Kruzel, and Nelson Drew), "the pursuit of American interests and principles in the world is not an abstraction, or accomplished by high technology and whirring computers. It depends on superb individuals." Like his quiet, unflashy hero George Marshall, Warren M. Christopher was one of them.
James Gibney is a features editor at The Atlantic. He was a political officer in the U.S. Foreign Service, where he wrote speeches for Warren Christopher, Anthony Lake, and Bill Clinton.
Warren M. Christopher: October 1925 – March 2011
Bruce Riordan
The Santa Barbara Independent
Monday, March 21, 2011
Warren M. Christopher, of Los Angeles, lawyer, negotiator, statesman, private counsel, and public servant, died on Friday night, March 18, 2011 in Los Angeles. He was 85 and had been ill with kidney and bladder cancer.
Mr. Christopher served as the Secretary of State from 1992 -1996 during President Bill Clinton’s first term. During the Carter Administration, Christopher was the nation’s chief negotiator for the 1981 release of American hostages in Iran, who were held for a 444-day period of captivity. His dramatic negotiations with Iran continued into the waning hours of the Carter Administration as he and his team secured the release of the remaining 52 hostages on January 20, 1981, at the precise moment that Ronald Reagan was completing his First Inaugural Address and being sworn in as Jimmy Carter’s successor. On some national networks, the two events were displayed in ‘side-by-side’ coverage.
The giant multi-national Los Angeles law firm O’Melveny & Myers announced Christopher’s death; he had been a senior partner and also a former managing partner of the firm. He was instrumental in leading O’Melveny during its largest sustained period of growth in the 1980 and 1990s. At the law firm, Christopher was well known for his grace and decorum—and for keeping track of the firm’s thousands of lawyers and staff with a private note card system. Christopher’s famous cards were what grounded one emblematic feature of his dedication to the firm, which was his instant recall of the small, but telling, details of each person’s background and service.
Recognized as a meticulous and restrained “lawyer’s lawyer,” for the past fifty years, Mr. Christopher was a towering figure in Los Angeles and Southern California legal and political circles. He was a California native, educated at the University of the Redlands, USC and Stanford, and he maintained residences in Los Angeles and in Summerland.
His influence in Washington D.C. was also considerable, especially for a devoted Southern Californian. As the Deputy Secretary of State in President Carter’s administration, Christopher helped win ratification of the Panama Canal treaties, presided over the normalization of diplomatic relations with China, and conducted intricate and long running negotiations in the Middle East and the Balkans.
Even in light of his many major achievements on the world stage, Warren Christopher’s legacy of influence in the Los Angeles area was perhaps more profound.
In the mid 1960s, Christopher investigated riots and racial unrest in the Watts district of Los Angeles; this work had an important influence on the Lyndon Johnson Administration’s urban policy. But that was only a prelude for Christopher. In 1991, after the severe beating by police officers of a black driver, Rodney King, riots and civil unrest in Los Angeles prompted civic leaders to choose Christopher to head an investigative commission to examine the practices of the Los Angeles Police Department. What became known as “the Christopher Commission” was a 100-day study of police brutality and corruption that ended by proposing major reforms to the Los Angeles Police Department. These steps included the creation of an Inspector General’s post to oversee police conduct and a significant increase in civilian supervision of Police Department policies and practices. Most controversially, the Christopher Commission report called upon LAPD Chief Daryl Gates—whose 13-year tenure as Chief was turbulent and polarizing—to step down.
Gates, who resisted the reforms proposed by the Christopher Commission, was replaced as Chief of Police. In the years since the release of the Christopher Commission Report, nearly every one of its major recommendations has been implemented. The Christopher Commission report now stands as model for civilian oversight over urban law enforcement.
The impact of the Christopher Commission Report has been far-reaching. John Mack, the former civil rights activist who is now the presiding President of the Los Angeles Police Commission, the civilian board that oversees the LAPD, has described the creation of the Report as "the single most important event in changing the culture of the LAPD.”
With a legal career spanning 60 years, Christopher leaves a great legacy of achievement to his law firm, his city and his nation. Long regarded as a living legend in legal circles for his tireless and protean work, often behind the scenes, for resolution and for progress, Christopher chose to describe himself as a quiet family man. He will be remembered by those who knew him, and many who did not, as a quintessential public servant.
Christopher is survived by his second wife, Marie, whom he married in 1956 after his first marriage ended in divorce; and their three children, Scott, Thomas and Kristen. He also is survived by a daughter from his first marriage, Lynn Collins; and five grandchildren. Private services are pending.
Bruce Riordan is a Los Angeles attorney and a former associate lawyer at the law firm of O’Melveny & Myers.
Diplomat dies: Former North Dakota senator says Christopher talked proudly of days in Scranton
Associated Press
March 19, 2011
FARGO, N.D. (AP) — Former Secretary of State Warren M. Christopher should be remembered as a true statesman who loved to talk about growing up in North Dakota, several of the state's longtime officials said Saturday.
Christopher, who was born and raised in the southwestern North Dakota town of Scranton, died Friday in his Los Angeles home of complications from bladder and kidney cancer. He was 85.
Christopher served as secretary of state in the Clinton administration from 1993-96, when he logged a record 780,000 miles abroad in his four-year tenure. He also served as deputy secretary of state in the Carter administration.
Former North Dakota Sen. Byron Dorgan, who also grew up in southwestern North Dakota, said Christopher regularly invited the state's congressional delegation to lunch, invariably to find out what was happening in his home state.
"He called it the North Dakota lunch at the state department," Dorgan said. "He was enormously proud of his North Dakota roots."
Christopher was one of the country's premier statesmen, Dorgan said.
"He had remarkable diplomatic skills," he said.
North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple lauded Christopher as a man dedicated to making the world a safer place and the United States a stronger nation.
"He was a skilled diplomat and a tireless advocate for peace and freedom, and will be remembered for the integral role he played in bringing peace to Bosnia and negotiating the release of American hostages in Iran," Dalrymple said in a statement.
"His accomplishments will remain a source of pride for North Dakota," the governor added.
Christopher was born in Scranton on Oct. 27, 1925. He graduated magna cum laude from the University of Southern California in 1945 and earned a law degree from Stanford University in 1949.
Christopher was presented in 1998 with the North Dakota's highest honor, the Theodore Roosevelt Rough Rider Award.
Warren Christopher dies at 85
Associated Press, Philly.com
03/21/2011
When he took over as secretary of state in the Clinton administration at age 68, Warren M. Christopher said he didn't expect to travel much. He went on to set a four-year mark for miles traveled by America's top diplomat.
The attorney turned envoy tirelessly traveled to Bosnia and the Mideast on peace missions during his 1993-1996 tenure - including some two dozen to Syria alone in a futile effort to promote a settlement with Israel.
After his work finished carrying out the Clinton administration agenda abroad, the longtime Californian returned home for an active life with his law firm.
Late Friday, the 85-year-old statesman died at his home in Los Angeles of complications from bladder and kidney cancer, said Sonja Steptoe, of the law firm O'Melveny & Myers, where Christopher was a senior partner.
In 1992, Christopher headed Clinton's vice-presidential search committee, recommending Al Gore for the presidential ticket, and he also supervised the contested Florida recount for Gore in the 2000 election.
Clinton called Christopher a public servant who "faithfully and effectively advanced America's interests and values."
"Chris had the lowest ratio of ego to accomplishment of any public servant I've ever worked with," Clinton said in a statement. "That made him easy to underestimate, but all Americans should be grateful that, along with great ability, he possessed the stamina and the steel to accomplish things that were truly extraordinary."
Warren Christopher
Jamelle Bouie
Tapped.com
03/21/2011
Warren Christopher wasn't a perfect secretary of state, but as an advocate of caution and restraint in foreign policy, his passing this weekend -- on the eve of our new adventure in Libya -- was more than a little ironic. Here's a portion from The New York Times obituary:
Mr. Christopher, who as a diplomat came to embody a reluctance to use force, supported President Truman's use of atomic bombs on Japan but later expressed doubt as to whether all alternatives had been fully explored. [...]
He occasionally spoke out on international issues, urging in an op-ed article in late 2002 that President Bush should rethink "his fixation on attacking Iraq" [...]
It's worth noting that Christopher recently -- along with James A. Baker III -- oversaw a commission to study and revise the 1973 War Powers Act. Among their recommendations: a proposal to require congressional consultation for combat expected to last longer than a week. It doesn't sound like much, but in light of the administration's unilateral decision to intervene, it would have been welcome.
Former US 'stealth' secretary of state Christopher dies
Irish Times, Reuters
03/21/2011
WASHINGTON – Former US secretary of state Warren Christopher, who helped bring peace to Bosnia and negotiated the release of American hostages in Iran, has died in California at 85.
Mr Christopher died “peacefully, surrounded by family at his home in Los Angeles” late on Friday of complications from kidney and bladder cancer, his family said in a statement.
As the top United States’ statesman under former president Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1997, Mr Christopher was a behind-the-scenes negotiator. Often called the “stealth” secretary of state, he was known for his understated, self-effacing manner.
“As President Clinton’s secretary of state, he was a resolute pursuer of peace,” President Barack Obama said on Saturday. “Warren Christopher was a skilful diplomat, a steadfast public servant, and a faithful American.”
Mr Christopher said that as a diplomat, careful listening was his secret weapon. “I observed some time ago that I was better at listening than at talking,” the New York Times quoted him as saying in a 1981 speech.
In 1995, he intervened during the final days of the US-brokered Bosnian peace talks at Dayton, Ohio. He had an important role in closing the deal, according to his deputy, Richard Holbrooke.
Mr Christopher not only spoke the language of diplomacy, he dressed the part. Favouring elegant, tailored suits, he was once named one of the best dressed men in the US by People magazine for his “diplomatically dapper” style.
He devoted much of his time to the Middle East, making at least 18 trips to the region in pursuit of peace and a ceasefire in southern Lebanon between Israel and Hizbullah. In 1994, he witnessed the signing of a peace treaty between Jordan and Israel.
As then president Jimmy Carter’s deputy secretary of state, he negotiated the release of 52 Americans taken hostage at the US embassy in Tehran in 1979.
US secretary of state Hillary Clinton said in a statement: “As well as anyone in his generation, he understood the subtle interplay of national interests, fundamental values and personal dynamics that drive diplomacy.”
“Most talking is not glamorous,” Mr Christopher said in an address at Stanford University months after the Iranian hostage crisis ended. “Often it is tedious. It can be excruciating and exhausting. But talking can also tame conflict, lift the human condition and move us close to the ideal of peace.”
Colleagues Reflect on Christopher's O'Melveny Career
D.M. Levine
Am Law Daily
03/21/2011
Days removed from his March 18 death at age 85, Warren Christopher's O'Melveny & Myers colleagues remembered him as a consensus-builder with a vision for expanding the firm overseas.
Christopher, who served as Secretary of State during President Bill Clinton's first term, was honored by The American Lawyer as a Lifetime Achiever in 2006. Christopher first joined O'Melveny in 1950 after a year-long clerkship with Supreme Court Justice Stephen O. Douglas, and rose to partner in 1958.
In 1965, he gained national attention when California Governor Edmund G. Brown, for whom Christopher had worked as an adviser and speechwriter, tapped him to head the state commission investigating the Watts race riots, according to this obituary in The New York Times. Two years later, Christopher moved to Washington, where he served as deputy to U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark under President Lyndon Johnson. Christopher returned O’Melveny in 1969.
In 1977, Christopher returned to public service again, becoming deputy to Secretary of State Cyrus Vance under President Jimmy Carter. In that role, Christopher helped negotiate the treaty that returned the Panama Canal to the Panamanian government and also served as lead negotiator for the U.S. in trying to win the release of 52 American hostages being held in Iran.
In 1981, Christopher rejoined O’Melveny again, this time becoming the firm's chairman. Colleagues say that his diplomatic background bled in to his management style.
"The most resonant phrase he liked to use was ‘Lets start with the things that we agree on,’” says Joe Calabrese, chair of O'Melveny's entertainment Sports and media Practice and the former head of O’Melveny’s Century City office. “[Christopher] was a soft-spoken but clear person and he really had a consensus-driven way of leadership.
In 1992, Christopher jumped back into public service, when President Bill Clinton appointed him U.S. Secretary of State. It was in that role that he won one of his most famous diplomatic achievements, hammering out the Dayton peace accords that ended the Bosnian War in 1995. Two years later, Christopher left the Clinton administration, rejoining O’Melveny as senior partner--a position created especially for him, according to an obituary released by the firm.
Former colleagues say that Christopher placed a major emphasis on the firm’s global expansion, especially into Asian markets.
“He saw how quickly the world was becoming global and that we had to be a global of player to remain at the top of the field,” says Carla Christofferson, who first worked with Christopher upon his return from the State Department in 1997 and who is now managing partner of O’Melveny’s Los Angeles office.
In 2000, while at O’Melveny, Christopher oversaw Al Gore’s ultimately unsuccessful efforts for a Florida recount, working alongside Boies, Schiller & Flexner’s David Boies and D.C.- lawyer and Democratic party stalwart Ronald A. Klain.
Until his death Friday, Christopher maintaining an office at O'Melveny's Century City location. In a statement, firm chair Arthur "A.B." Culvahouse said, "Chris's passing is a profound loss for our firm. He will be a lasting role model of principled leadership, uncommon grace, and genuine humanity for the firm's partners, lawyers, and staff"
Warren M. Christopher
Susan McRae
Daily Journal
03/22/2011
LOS ANGELES - One day over lunch several years ago, Warren M. Christopher,
a key figure in three presidential administrations, asked a young partner at
O'Melveny & Myers LLP what she planned to do if an opportunity arose to do something
outside the firm.
Carla Christofferson said she was impressed a former secretary of state expressed an interest
in her future. But she wasn't sure how he'd react when she confided her desire to buy the Sparks,
Los Angeles' Women's National Association Basketball team.
"Clearly, that wasn't what Chris had in mind when he took me to lunch," Christofferson said.
She described to the statesman her vision, what it could mean to youngsters, how it
could advance the accomplishments for women and for the city of Los Angeles.
"He looked at me and said, 'That's absolutely perfect,'" recalled Christofferson, who is
managing partner of O'Melveny's Los Angeles office.
"From that time on," she said, "he was a huge supporter in helping the firm see the
value in that type of activity [basketball franchise] to the community."
Christopher died Friday at his home in Los Angeles from complications of kidney and
bladder cancers. He was 85.
After a weekend of tributes from President Barack Obama and other world leaders,
lawyers across Los Angeles - especially those who worked closely with the man simply
known as Chris - recalled the legacy he left at home, on his firm and Los Angeles' legal
community. They said he always encouraged them to look beyond the work at hand and
consider ways to contribute to society.
Widely regarded as an exemplary lawyer and public servant, Christopher is credited
for impressing on all who worked for him the value of maintaining an equal balance
between serving the firm, family and community. He set the gold standard for legal
practice, friends and associates said.
One quote liberally attributed to him, lawyers said, is, "When in doubt, tell the truth."
"I can't think of one individual lawyer who has made more of an impact on the city of
Los Angeles than Warren Christopher," said O'Melveny partner Seth A. Aronson.
In 1991, in the wake of the police beating of motorist Rodney King, Christopher was
the first person who came to the minds of legal and law enforcement leaders - including
then-Police Chief Daryl Gates - to head up a commission to propose reforms of the Los
Angeles Police Department. Called the Christopher Commission, lawyers said
Christopher, ever modest and unassuming, insisted on calling in the anonymous
commission. One of the recommendations was that Gates step down.
John W. Spiegel of Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP, who served with Christopher as
general counsel of the commission, worked closely with Christopher for 100 days to
write and issue a report. The committee recommended sweeping changes in philosophy
from an "occupying force" to an emphasis on community policing, Spiegel said.
Christopher also had an avid interest in youth and set up a program through the firm
that offers top students from disadvantaged high schools full college scholarships.
For a guy who literally rubbed shoulders with kings and advised presidents, he had a
great interest in helping [youth] learn, grow and develop," Spiegel said.
He also made a habit of tracking everything the partners did on a personal level.
O'Melveny partner Joseph A. Calabrese remembered some lawyers at the firm telling
him that when they made partner in 1980, Christopher was in Algeria negotiating the
release of hostages, yet took time to send each a personal note of congratulation.
Born in 1925 in Scranton, N.D., Christopher graduated magna cum laude in 1945
from USC. After serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II, he enrolled in Stanford
Law School, graduating in 1949.
Following a clerkship with Justice William O. Douglas on the U.S. Supreme Court, he
joined O'Melveny in 1950 as an associate. He soon became a well-respected litigator, a
sought-after counselor and a leader in the legal profession.
He left O'Melveny on several occasions to serve in various public positions, including
special counsel in 1958 to California Gov. Edmund G. Brown; chairman of the U.S.
delegation to the United States-Japan Cotton Textile Negotiation; and special
consultant to U.S. Undersecretary of State George W. Ball.
He served as U.S. deputy attorney general under President Lyndon Johnson, U.S.
deputy secretary of state under President Jimmy Carter and U.S. secretary of state
under President Bill Clinton - each time returning to O'Melveny.
Christopher is survived by his wife, Marie, children Lynn, Scott, Thomas and Kristen,
and five grandchildren. Plans for a private memorial service are pending.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to the Warren Christopher
Scholarship Fund through the California Community Foundation, 445 S. Figueroa St.,
Suite 3400, Los Angeles, Calif. 90071.
Christopher was far ahead of his time on a global scale, also could understand how a
women's basketball team could be just as far-reaching.
Op-Ed
Jim Newton: Lunches with Mr. Christopher
It is curiosity and engagement that most define the Warren Christopher I knew.
Jim Newton
Los Angeles
March 22, 2011
For the past dozen or so years, I had lunch every few months with Warren M. Christopher, Los Angeles' most enduring and consequential civic counselor.
Our lunches were, in one sense, predictable. He would choose a top-notch restaurant — Lucques was a particular favorite. He was always prompt, always impeccably dressed in British suits and silk ties set off by a neatly folded pocket square. He drank one glass — never two — of white wine, and finished his meal with espresso. He never had dessert. We ritualistically fought over the check and ended up alternating with fairly rigorous precision.
But our conversations were wonderfully varied and in some respects defy the Christopher who emerges from the respectful if impersonal tributes that greeted news of his death Friday night. The Christopher of those pieces is serious, and that was true of the man I knew, but he was not, as some suggested, dour. He had a craggy face and sometimes mournful eyes, but he twinkled too.
Once, he confided how much he enjoyed a popular television comedy; as it happened, the star of that show was my wife's best friend. I arranged for Christopher and his wife to meet her and her family. He was delighted.
A few years ago, I agreed to interview Christopher before the partners and families of O'Melveny & Myers, the law firm he joined in 1950 and to which he was fiercely loyal. Christopher's advice to me as we prepared for the event was that I should try to keep it light, easygoing. Surely, I joked with the audience that day, I must be the rare person whom Warren Christopher urged to lighten up. They laughed knowingly, as did he.
He was unfailingly, overwhelmingly polite, and his manner brought out the best in others. I heard him curse, though only once that I recall clearly, but I never felt comfortable cursing in front of him. He urged me time and again to call him Chris, but my regard for him was too immense. I started by calling him Mr. Secretary and eventually agreed to go with Mr. Christopher, but Chris was, for me, a step too far.
Christopher was a national figure, and his view on President Obama's approach to healthcare reform or his handling of the war in Afghanistan reflected volumes of wisdom and insight. On the latter, for instance, he shrewdly examined the administration's public debate over the war, wondering about the wisdom of allowing top officials to take sides in the matter.
Moreover, his experience transcended the politics of the day. When I set out to write a book about Chief Justice Earl Warren, he modestly told me of the intersections of his life with that of the chief justice and his court. Among other things, Christopher had begun his career as a clerk to Justice William O. Douglas, later Warren's colleague, and had worked with President Lyndon Johnson to replace Warren when the chief justice tried to retire in 1968.
But it was Los Angeles that we mostly talked about. He had strong views regarding the performances of Mayors Richard Riordan and Antonio Villaraigosa — and of other leading figures in this city and state (it goes without saying that some of those views were positive and others negative, but his opinions were offered in private and will remain so).
At our last lunch — just a few weeks ago at Craft in Century City, joined by one of his sons — he evaluated some of the candidates considering a run in 2013. Only over the weekend did it occur to me that even as he was sharing his thoughts on this race, he realized he would not be here to see it to fruition. He was, I see now, saying goodbye.
One other regular topic of conversation was his love — and concern — for the Los Angeles Times. He recognized the invaluable place that The Times plays in the political and cultural life of Southern California, and he was dismayed by the paper's ongoing trials. He was particularly appalled by vulgarity, and when reports described the behavior of some of the company's Chicago managers, now no longer with the company, he was furious. But despite his ongoing concerns, Christopher remained convinced that the city he had come to as a young boy deserved a newspaper that was intelligent and far-reaching, and that The Times remained the best hope of that. Last year, when this column was offered to me, he urged me to take up the challenge.
Looking back, it is curiosity and engagement that most define the Warren Christopher I knew. For more than a decade, he who knew so much asked me more than I asked him. He was always learning, always counseling, always mindful of those around him. He was a study in excellence. He leaves not only a nation but a city — and a columnist — better for having known him.
Community Foundation Mourns the Passing of Secretary Warren Christopher
California Community Foundation
03/22/2011
LOS ANGELES, March 22, 2011 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- The California Community Foundation (CCF) in Los Angeles today released the following statement on the passing of former Secretary of State Warren Christopher: "It is with great sadness that we note the passing of Secretary Warren Christopher, a great American public servant and a wonderful member of the Los Angeles community," said CCF President and CEO Antonia Hernandez. "His leadership, dedication to justice, and generosity of spirit inspired us all, and will be sorely missed." It was at CCF that the Warren Christopher Scholarship Fund was established in 1992. Each year, the fund provides four-year college scholarships to high school sophomores in the Los Angeles Unified School District with outstanding promise and financial need. Approximately $3 million has been awarded to nearly 140 deserving students since the fund was established with an initial gift from O'Melveny & Myers LLP, the law firm where Secretary Christopher served as a former chairman and senior partner.
Secretary Christopher was deeply committed to support these talent students, many of whom have overcome challenges in their pursuit of higher education, continued their education and completed a degree. The Warren Christopher Scholarship Fund will remain a lasting tribute to a modest but extraordinary man.
The California Community Foundation (CCF) is a public, charitable organization that has played several important roles in communities of Los Angeles County since 1915. It encourages philanthropy by individuals, families, companies and organizations, and serves as a steward of their funds and legacies. It also makes grants to nonprofits in the arts, education, health care, housing and neighborhoods, and human development. In addition, it engages in community problem solving through collaborations with other leading organizations in the nonprofit, public and private sectors. For more information, visit calfund.org.
Stanford mourns the loss of diplomat Warren Christopher, alumnus of Stanford Law School and former chair of the Board of Trustees
Stanford Law School
03/22/2011 Former U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher, an alumnus of Stanford Law School who served on the university's Board of Trustees from 1972-1992, died March 18. "Warren Christopher combined a boundless intellect with an elegant personal style," said Donald Kennedy, president
Former U.S. Secretary of State Warren "Chris" Christopher, an alumnus of Stanford Law School who served on the university's Board of Trustees from 1972-1992, including three years as chair of the board, has died. He was 85.
Christopher died March 18 at his home in Los Angeles of complications from bladder and kidney cancer, said Sonja Steptoe of the law firm O'Melveny & Myers, where Christopher was a senior partner.
"Warren Christopher combined a boundless intellect with an elegant personal style," said Donald Kennedy, president emeritus of Stanford. "Chris chaired the board for three of my years as president – 1985-1988 – and gave me the wisest and most thoughtful advice I could have wished for.
Kennedy said Christopher often quoted from fictional character Sergeant Preston's law of the Yukon – "The scenery changes only for the lead dog."
"He gave me a little ornament featuring that law," Kennedy said. "It reminds me of Chris and what he did for his country at the end of President Carter's term."
As deputy secretary of state under President Jimmy Carter, Christopher's negotiations played a key role in the release of American hostages in Iran. Carter awarded him the Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award, in 1981.
Christopher, appointed the nation's 63rd secretary of state in 1993 by President Bill Clinton, was considered the consummate lawyer-statesman – multifaceted and unstinting in his service to the nation and the larger, global community.
"He was a friend, a mentor and truly a diplomat's diplomat," U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a statement. "He served our country with such great distinction in so many capacities over his long and very productive life. There are a lot of days in this job when I ask myself, 'What would Warren do?' From the Balkans to the Middle East, to China and Vietnam, he helped guide the United States through difficult challenges with tremendous grace and wisdom."
A skilled negotiator and accomplished lawyer whose career spanned five decades, Christopher deftly moved between public and private practice, serving three American presidents and a multitude of commissions and advisory boards, while also assuming senior leadership roles at O'Melveny & Myers.
As secretary of state under President Clinton, Christopher helped bring peace to Bosnia and to parts of the Middle East.
In 2008, O'Melveny & Myers – where Christopher served as chairman of the firm from 1982 to 1992 and as a senior partner until 2011 – honored him by endowing the Warren Christopher Professorship of the Practice of International Law and Diplomacy, a joint appointment between Stanford Law School and the Freeman-Spogli Institute for International Studies.
"Warren Christopher was a unique and very special person," said Larry Kramer, dean of Stanford Law School. "He was brilliant and thoughtful, generous, modest, and unselfish to the core. In everything he said and did, he embodied what we mean when we talk of someone as classy."
Born in Scranton, N.D., on Oct. 27, 1925, Christopher came to Stanford Law School directly from active duty with the Naval Reserve, where he served as an ensign in the Pacific Theater from 1943 to 1949.
At law school he was selected president of the first volume of the Stanford Law Review and graduated Order of the Coif, the national law honor society.
After receiving his law degree, Christopher clerked for Justice William O. Douglas of the U.S. Supreme Court. He then joined O'Melveny & Myers in October 1950, beginning a lifelong partnership with the law firm that embraced his periodic leaves for service in government.
Christopher's first political appointment came in June 1967 when President Lyndon Johnson tapped him for the job of deputy attorney general, a position he held until 1969. He again answered the call to government in 1977 when President Carter asked him to serve as deputy secretary of state, a position he held until 1981. In 1993, President Clinton appointed Christopher as secretary of state, a position he held until 1997.
In 1991 Christopher was appointed chairman of the Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department that investigated the Rodney King assault and subsequent riots in Los Angeles. In 1992, he headed the vice presidential search for then-Gov. Clinton during his presidential campaign and served as director of the presidential transition.
Most recently, he co-chaired – along with former U.S. Secretary of State James A. Baker III – the National War Powers Commission of the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia.
Christopher's many professional activities included service as president of the Los Angeles County Bar Association, 1974-75; chairman of the Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary of the American Bar Association, 1975-76; member of the Board of Governors of the State Bar of California, 1975-76; and special counsel to California Governor Edmund G. Brown in 1959.
Christopher served as chairman of the Carnegie Corporation of New York's Board of Trustees; director and vice chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations; director, Los Angeles World Affairs Council; vice chairman of the Governor's Commission on the Los Angeles riots in 1965- 66; special consultant to Under Secretary George W. Ball on Foreign Economic Problems; president of the Coordinating Council for Higher Education in the State of California; and Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Christopher is survived by his wife, four children and five grandchildren.
A Tribute to Warren Christopher
The Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University
03/22/2011
Warren M. Christopher, a highly respected attorney, former Secretary of State and former chair of the Stanford Board of Trustees died on March 18, 2011, at the age of 85.
A graduate of the University of Southern California, Warren Christopher attended Stanford Law School, where he was president of the Law Review and was a member of the Order of the Coif.
Upon graduation, Mr. Christopher joined the Los Angeles law firm of O'Melveny& Myers LLP. He would blend a highly regarded and very distinguished law career with an equally distinguished record of public service to several American presidents.
From 1997 to 1982, Mr. Christopher served President Jimmy Carter as Deputy Secretary of State of the United States. President Carter awarded him the Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award, in January of 1981 for his role in negotiating the release of 52 Americans hostages in Iran. Mr. Christopher then rejoined O'Melveny & Myers in 1981, serving as chairman of the firm until 1992.
In 1991, Mr. Christopher was Chairman of the Independent Commission of the Los Angeles Police Department, which proposed significant reforms in the aftermath of the Rodney King incident. Mr. Christopher headed the search for a running mate for both Governor Clinton's and Vice President Gore's presidential campaigns and served as Director of the Presidential Transition Process for President Clinton.
Mr. Christopher was called on by President Clinton to serve as Secretary of State. He was sworn in as the 63rd Secretary in January of 1993 and served until January 1997. As Secretary of State, he helped bring peace to Bosnia and to parts of the Middle East. He rejoined his firm, O'Melveny & Myers, as its senior partner in 1997.
Mr. Christopher's activities have included service as President of the Board of Trustees of Stanford and as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Carnegie Corporation of New York. He has been a Director and Vice Chairman of the Board of the Council on Foreign Relations. He was also a co-chair, with James Baker, of the National War Powers Commission, convened to determine the respective roles of the president and the congress in taking the nation to war.
He authored four books: In the Stream of History: Shaping Foreign Policy for a New Era (Stanford, 1998), Chances of a Lifetime (Scriber 2001), Diplomacy, the Neglected Imperative (published privately in 1981) and Random Harvest (published privately in 2005).
"Warren Christopher was a distinguished attorney, an outstanding diplomat, an astute statesman and a wonderful person,"In 2008, O'Melveny & Myers and a number of its current and retired partners committed $1.5 million to endow the Warren Christopher Professorship of the Practice of International Law and Diplomacy, a joint appointment between Stanford Law School and the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies.
"Warren Christopher was a unique and a very special person," said Law School Dean Larry Kramer. "He was brilliant and thoughtful, generous, modest, and unselfish to the core. In everything he said and did, he embodied what we mean when we talk of someone as classy.
"Warren Christopher was a distinguished attorney, an outstanding diplomat, an astute statesman and a wonderful person,"said Coit D. Blacker, Director of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and the Olivier Nomellini Professor in International Studies. "How appropriate it is to have a gift that lives on for the next generation of leaders and public servants that honors his talent, his prescience, his leadership and his remarkable career in both the law and diplomacy. We will miss him and his wise counsel."
Lambda Legal’s Jon Davidson Remembers Warren Christopher
Karen Ocamb
LGBT POV
March 21, 2011 | 8:28 AM (Editor’s note: Former Secretary of State Warren Christopher died Friday from complications of kidney and bladder cancer, CNN reported. He was 85. “The cause of peace and freedom and decency have never had a more tireless or tenacious advocate,” President Bill Clinton said in 1996 when Christopher announced that he was leaving his post as the nation’s top diplomat.
Most Americans of a certain age remember Christopher as the man who negotiated the release of the 52 Americans held hostage in Iran for 444 days after the Iran Revolution in Nov. 1979. He was then deputy secretary of state under President Jimmy Carter. But his career was deep and wide and, as his mentor Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas had advised, a life in which he got “into the stream of history” and swam as fast as he could.
I met Christopher very briefly at a major fundraiser he co-hosted in Los Angeles for presidential candidate Bill Clinton, where Clinton friend David Mixner and Access Now for Gay and Lesbian Equality (ANGLE) were publicly recognized for their contributions – an historic step. But as Lambda Legal’s Legal Director Jon Davidson remembers (very modestly, on his part) – Christopher was very important to LGBT history. – Karen Ocamb)
Remembering Warren Christopher
By Jon Davidson, Legal Director of Lambda Legal
Our community owes much to Warren Christopher. After he urged Mayor Tom Bradley to appoint an independent commission to investigate police misconduct in the wake of the videotaped beating of Rodney King, he was made chair of what became known as the ‘Christopher Commission.’ Under his leadership, the Commission broadly examined the LAPD’s history of discrimination, harassment and violence, and decided to include that directed against gay people. Warren Christopher brought in more than 100 staff to work on the investigation, including some who were openly gay, such as current Ambassador to New Zealand David Huebner.
The Christopher Commission’s 228-page report documented virulently anti-gay sentiments of LAPD officers, such as mobile digital police car transmissions referring to crimes against gay people as ‘NHI, “meaning ‘no humans involved.” The Commission’s detailed examination of police records also proved false LAPD claims that anti-gay sting operations in Griffith Park were justified by frequent complaints.
When I and others pressed the Commission to hear testimony from current and former lesbian and gay officers, they agreed and took steps to protect those who were still in the closet. That testimony showed a widespread pattern of discrimination and harassment based on perceived sexual orientation against both LAPD employees and civilians.
The Christopher Commission’s report helped rid the LAPD of homophobic Police Chief Daryl Gates. In addition, while the LGBT community had complained about their treatment by the LAPD for years, having someone as respected as Warren Christopher endorse those complaints made a huge difference in efforts to bring about reforms within the LAPD.
I later met Warren Christopher when his law firm, O’Melveny & Myers, helped Lambda Legal represent a gay youth subjected to horrible harassment at his high school. Christopher had stood behind his firm (which was long considered a conservative institution) taking on that case, and he expressed great pride in the result we jointly obtained — establishing a constitutional right of lesbian and gay youth to be out at school as well as the largest pretrial settlement ever of a case of this nature.
With all Hilary Clinton has done for LGBT people as Secretary of State, it may be hard to fully appreciate what it meant to have one of her predecessors standing up for the rights of members of our community two decades ago. We should remember Warren Christopher for the many reforms he helped bring about. But, perhaps even more than that, our community should remember him for helping make tackling inequality based on sexual orientation a mainstream concern.
Warren Christopher Dead at 85
Steve Verdon
Outside the Beltway
03/22/2011
Former Secretary of State under President Bill Clinton Warren Christopher has died of bladder and kidney cancer at the age of 85.
His public contributions included serving as a counselor to four United States Presidents, several California governors, and a number of Los Angeles mayors. He played a major role in securing the release of the American hostages in Iran in 1981; oversaw the negotiation of the 1995 Dayton Agreement that ended the Bosnian War; and chaired the commission that investigated the Rodney King assault and subsequent riots in Los Angeles. He was senior partner and former chairman of the international law firm O’Melveny & Myers LLP.
Christopher is survived by his second wife, Marie; and their three children, Scott, Thomas and Kristen. He also is survived by a daughter from his first marriage, Lynn Collins; and five grandchildren.
Conciliator with mantra of non-intervention
Jurek Martin
Financial Times
03/19/2011
Europeans mostly remember, without affection, Warren Christopher, who died this weekend at the age of 85, as the secretary of state who kept the US from intervening in the Balkans as it slid into war in the early 1990s. But that should not detract from half a century of remarkable public service and general trouble-shooting at the highest levels of government.
Among his signal achievements was as chief US negotiator in the protracted, and ultimately successful, efforts to secure the release of the 52 American diplomats taken hostage in Tehran. As deputy secretary of state in the Carter administration, he also steered through Congress passage of the controversial Panama Canal treaties in 1978 and directed the normalisation of relations with China.
A lawyer most of his non-government life with the blue chip Los Angeles firm O’Melveny and Myers, his skills as a conciliator were put to good use in reports after the inner city riots, notably in Detroit and Los Angeles, of 1965-67 and in proposing reforms of the Los Angeles police department after inner-city Watts erupted in flames following the brutal beating of Rodney King in 1991.
He was, in sum, the classic example of a generation that moved seamlessly between the public and private sectors, much like George Shultz, Cyrus Vance and Paul Nitze. The difference was that he was more self-effacing than most. With his long, deeply lined face and in his trademark pinstriped suit, he looked, and sometimes spoke, more like an undertaker than a diplomat. His only known indulgence was a fondness for the better California chardonnays.
Warren Minor Christopher was born in Scranton, North Dakota, on March 27, 1925, the son of a banker who drove himself into an early grave, exhausted by his efforts to save local farmers from the ravages of the depression. The family moved to California, where, after wartime Navy service, he earned degrees from the University of Southern California, and, in law, from Stanford.
He served his legal clerkship with William O Douglas, the illustrious liberal Supreme Court Justice and then went to work for Governor Edmund G “Pat” Brown, the architect of modern California whose son is now serving a third term in the position. His political connections were, therefore, established early.
His report on the Detroit riots brought him to the attention of President Lyndon Johnson who, in 1967, appointed him deputy attorney general, working with Cyrus Vance, who, in 1977 chosen him as his deputy at the state department. However, when Mr Vance resigned after the abortive Desert One rescue mission to rescue the Tehran hostages in 1980, Senator Edmund Muskie of Maine was preferred to Mr Christopher as the next secretary of state.
By then, however, he was deeply into the delicate negotiations to get the hostages freed. He spent weeks in Algeria, which was helping the talks. The end result was that they were flown out of Tehran at precisely the moment when Ronald Reagan was inaugurated in Washington as new president in January, 1981.
It was no surprise, given his establishment credentials, that Bill Clinton chose Mr Christopher to head the search committee to find a vice presidential candidate in 1992, selecting then Tennessee Senator Al Gore. He was to perform the same function for Mr Gore eight years later, picking Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, and was head of the Democratic legal team which challenged the results of the bitterly contested Florida election, the case ultimately decided in the Supreme Court in favour of George W Bush.
He became Mr Clinton’s first secretary of state with instructions to try and keep the US out of foreign adventures so the new president could focus on domestic affairs. But the world was in turmoil, not only in the Balkans but also in Somalia, from which the US withdrew the Marines which had landed in late 1992 following a massacre of 17 of them in Mogadishu, and in Rwanda, where genocide raged, unimpeded by external intervention.
Non-intervention appeared to be the Christopher mantra, much to the frustration of American allies, especially in Europe. Eventually the Balkan wars came to a temporary end with the Dayton peace accords of 1995, but they were brought about less by the secretary of state than by Richard Holbrooke, the special envoy who died late last year. The US intervention in Haiti in 1994 was more the handiwork of General Colin Powell, then chairman of the joint chiefs.
Even the Oslo peace accords of 1993 between Israel and the Palestinians were agreed without much overt US influence. But Mr Christopher did throw his weight behind the Nato Partnership for Peace programme, establishing closer links between the Western military alliance and the former Soviet satellite nations. He also played a leading role in normalising relations with Vietnam in 1995.
He did not serve a second term, giving way to Mrs Madeleine Albright, and, with typical diffidence, contributing relatively little to subsequent national debates about foreign policy. But he did leave, in his 2001 memoirs, a definition of how he saw his role over the years. “My task,” he wrote,” has been to serve as the steward, not the proprietor, of extraordinary public trust.”
PSA Mourns Passing of Advisory Board Member Warren Christopher
Partnership for a Secure America
03/23/2011
Partnership for a Secure America mourns the passing of Warren Christopher, the Secretary of State during President Bill Clinton’s first term and an esteemed member of PSA’s Advisory Board. From the hostage crisis during the Carter administration to the ethnic conflict in the Balkans during the Clinton administration, Christopher was a major presence in U.S. foreign policy for nearly four decades. Known for his patient and diligent style of diplomacy, President Carter called him “the best public servant I ever knew.”
Mr. Christopher also served as Deputy Attorney General and as Deputy Secretary of State, and he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1981. PSA is honored to have had Mr. Christopher as a signatory on eleven of PSA’s past statements, and joins his family in celebrating his distinguished career in public service.
US former State Secretary, Warren Christopher dies of cancer at 85
Floyd Allen
International Business Times
03/23/2011
Former Secretary of State Warren Christopher has succumbed to his kidney and bladder cancer and died at his Los Angeles home, Friday. He was 85.
Citing the statement made by his family, Reuters said that Christopher ‘passed away peacefully, surrounded by family’.
The former State Secretary is recognized for his initiatives to bring peace in Bosnia and for his courageous efforts for the release of American hostages in Iran.
In a statement Saturday, President Barack Obama underscored the contributions made by Christopher as a government official and as a public servant.
"As President Clinton's Secretary of State, he was a resolute pursuer of peace," President Barack Obama was quoted by Reuters as saying in a statement Saturday.
The President added, “Warren Christopher was a skillful diplomat, a steadfast public servant, and a faithful American.”
Christopher described himself as a ‘better listener’ and this according to Reuters may have contributed to the success of his diplomatic efforts in the Middle East, Africa and in many parts of the world.
"I observed some time ago that I was better at listening than at talking,” Reuters quoted the New York Times as citing Christopher as a deputy secretary of state in a 1981 speech.
Christopher’s deputy, the late Richard Holbrooke attested the former State Secretary’s role at the U.S.-brokered Bosnian peace talks in 1995. Holbrooke maintained, said Reuters that Christopher was the force behind the agreement penned during the negotiation.
Aside from his success in the Bosnian negotiation, Christopher is also recognized for his pursuit and efforts to bring peace and a ceasefire in Southern Lebanon due to conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, a pro-Iranian Islamic group. The U.S. official said Reuters had witnessed the signing of the peace agreement between Jordan and Israel in 1994.
But another notable contribution made by Christopher is his efforts in the 1979 hostage situation at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.
Christopher had a big hand in the release of 52 Americans taken hostage who were freed on January 20, 1981 shortly after Ronald Reagan was sworn into power.
President Carter who awarded Christopher the Medal of Freedom during his term, said in a statement that America ‘had lost a great and revered leader’.
Carter was echoed by current Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton who said in a statement that Christopher was ‘diplomat’s diplomat – talented, dedicated and exceptionally wise’.
"As well as anyone in his generation, he understood the subtle interplay of national interests, fundamental values and personal dynamics that drive diplomacy," Clinton was quoted as saying by Reuters.
Christopher hailed form Scranton, North Dakota but grew up in Los Angeles. No details as of yet have been issued by the family on the funeral services and other activities in honor of his death.
Working Quietly, Touching Lives
David Lash, Daniel Grunfeld
Daily Journal
03/24/2011
Every once in a while a great person walks into our lives and inspires us...with acts great and small.
Warren M. Christopher was just such a man.
At the center of some of this country's most memorable history, he was a private man in the middle of a very public life. Devoted to family and to balancing the competing pulls of a demanding life, he answered the call of presidents and clients alike. He mastered substance in a time of instant news-making. Always impeccably attired, he was button-down in an era of casual. A statesman with a global platform, he was among the country's most skilled lawyers, mastering the craft at O'Melveny & Myers, teaching young lawyers, representing clients.
Christopher built his unparalleled career on unmatched values. He was the keeper of his firm's formal values statement, striving for excellence, leadership and citizenship. His professional life defined the values of his profession - wisdom, discretion, effectiveness, loyalty and an abiding commitment to public service. Much of the last several decades of his life was devoted to those values, played out as often on a world stage as on a very small, very personal one, ensuring assistance to the most vulnerable members of our communities through pro bono efforts.
Christopher's work on the world stage is well-known. He was a selfless public servant, worked to ensure civil rights in the turbulent 1960s, trekked tirelessly around the globe to free American hostages as the deputy secretary of state, logged hundreds of thousands of miles in pursuit of peace in the Middle East as Secretary of State under President Bill Clinton, helped heal our city in a strong and courageous way after the Rodney King incident, and much more. However, on a smaller stage, away from the spotlight he never sought, was a man of quiet humility who exhibited equal force when pursuing justice on a more individual level.
As the chair of the commission that bore his name, Christopher held a fractious city in his grasp as he led the effort to investigate the Rodney King incident and make recommendations about Los Angeles' past and future. In doing so, he led one of the great pro bono efforts that any city has ever experienced. Calling on law firms across the landscape, enlisting volunteer support from the area's top legal minds, his call to public service was heard by civic leaders, all of whom responded without hesitation. In his post government days, this was only the beginning of the impact his influence would have on issues of justice. He chose to spend some portion of that period living his deep commitment to assisting the most vulnerable members of our communities and addressing the toughest issues in our communities through pro bono efforts.
At O'Melveny & Myers he inspired, launched and pushed an entirely new pro bono initiative. As a small part of his gargantuan legacy, he sought to challenge his friends and colleagues throughout the firm to make an indelible mark on their communities, their families and themselves by serving others and handling pro bono matters. Building on his and the firm's long-time commitment to the Los Angeles community, he sought to ensure that such a commitment be formally institutionalized, that it be expanded, that every lawyer in the firm be involved and dedicated. He left the day-today implementation to others, but kept careful watch over the growth of the program, tracking the progress, keeping up with the cases, making sure that as many lawyers as possible were participating and that as many people as possible were being helped. It often was the smaller cases to which he turned his attention. His deep concerns were focused, for instance, on the tenant families living in slum conditions, and what was being done not just to help them but also so many others who were suffering similar indignities.
His dedication led several local legal services organizations to ask him if he would consent to be honored by them. Both Public Counsel and Bet Tzedek, two legal aid entities with which he maintained ties and was a sounding board to countless leaders, asked him to accept their highest awards. Each time he politely declined, typically, stating there were more worthy honorees. Public Counsel wanted to bestow its William O. Douglas award on him - fitting given that he had been a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas. However, his quiet humility continued to dominate. Rather than accepting the award himself, he played an instrumental role in helping the organization secure such other distinguished honorees as Al Gore, R. Sargent Shriver, George Mitchell and his good friend and successor at the State Department, Madeleine Albright. After ultimately agreeing to present, rather than accept, an award at the Bet Tzedek annual fund-raising dinner, he spoke movingly of the need to advance our democratic ideals by ensuring access to justice for those who otherwise would be shut out of our judicial system. At his firm, and throughout the nation, he stamped those ideals on every lawyer he met, challenging and leading the profession to build an everstronger pro bono culture.
Working quietly, touching lives, was his wont. Perhaps most poignantly was the pride he took, and the obvious emotion he felt, in working with his family and his firm each year, awarding "Christopher Scholarships" to 10 Los Angeles High School students who had overcome stifling poverty to excel in school. One recently wrote from her Ivy League campus that were it not for "Mr. Christopher" she could not have imagined having had this life-changing opportunity. Hardly the headline-making role he had in the Panama Canal negotiations, but so obviously vital to him.
It was typical of who he was, choosing neither the public honor nor the limelight, which he so richly deserved, but instead quietly accomplishing marvelous things for the people and causes he cared about deeply. When thanked for his support, guidance and all he did, predictably he would deflect the conversation and talk about how important pro bono and community work were to his profession, our neighborhoods and especially those being assisted. He had walked the world's stage and yet he fought for those who knew no stage at all, impacting their lives in ways they will never know.
Daniel Grunfeld is the former president-CEO at Public Counsel and currently serves on the board of directors of the organization. He is a litigation partner at Kaye Scholer LLP and co-heads the litigation department in the Los Angeles office.
David A. Lash is the former executive director at Bet Tzedek and currently serves on the board of directors of the organization. He is the managing counsel for pro bono and public interest services at O’Melveny & Myers LLP.
Thank You, Warren Christopher
Rick Richman
Commentary Magazine
03/20/2011 Warren Christopher came from the humblest of beginnings. Born in 1925 in North Dakota, in a small prairie town settled by European immigrants around 1900, he watched his father and mother struggle there during the Depression. In Chances of a Lifetime, he wrote that he learned “the look and sound of dignity and stoicism in the face of adversity,” and the “human scenes I witnessed in the flat, dry North Dakota plains while at my father’s side may account more than anything else for the tilt of my social and political concerns in the direction of the unfortunate.”
His intelligence was intimidating. He graduated at age 19 from USC magna cum laude, served in World War II, and went to Stanford Law School, where he became the first president of the Stanford Law Review. He clerked for Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, joined the premier Los Angeles law firm, and eventually became its managing partner. He periodically left for public service: deputy attorney general under Johnson; deputy secretary of state under Carter; secretary of state under Clinton. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor.
Here is a small but telling example of his integrity and intensity: he appointed the first Jewish ambassador to Israel, rejecting the traditional State view that it would be a “conflict of interest” for a Jew to serve in that position. He made 24 trips to Syria pursuing a Syrian-Israeli deal.
It was his conviction that the more you listened, the more people trusted you. He aspired, he said, to the standard of Shakespeare’s statesman, who could “hold his tongue in ten different languages.” Someone once asked how he managed to be so unflappable, and he replied he did not feel that way at all – he felt like a duck on water, calm on the surface but paddling furiously underneath to stay afloat.
His most famous public moment was leading the negotiations for the release of the 52 Americans held hostage by Iran, which he wrote about privately later. He was proud he had offered Iran no apology, no ransom, and no return of the Shah or the Shah’s assets, and he did not know until the last moment whether the negotiations would succeed. Iran’s acceptance came at 7 a.m. on his final day, and his recollection included a characteristic gesture of appreciation for the efforts of others:
I straightened my tie and went down to sign before a hundred cameras – in clothes I had not taken off for 48 hours. Our teams stood behind us, and one of the aides standing behind us fell asleep on his feet, teetered, and was caught by a colleague. I signed with a pen borrowed from Assistant Secretary Harold Saunders as a reflection of my esteem for his 14-1/2 months of dedication to the release of the hostages.
A few months later, he offered some thoughts on human rights in a commencement address at Bates College that are worth reading in light of what happened over the succeeding 30 years and is happening today:
Human rights is not a means to comfort our enemies by harassing our friends. Rather it is a strategy to identify America with the cause of human freedom, and to advance it wherever and however we can. … [F]or all of its complications, a human rights policy is one of profound importance to our long term interest in the world. It is not secondary to containing the Soviet Union, but essential to it.
Open political systems have a great practical advantage. They can absorb and reflect popular aspirations. In closed systems, grievances are likely to find expression in other ways – in radical politics and violent acts. … Unquestionably, communism and terrorism are enemies of order. But we deceive ourselves if we think human misery is not as great an enemy, for its gives the others places to flourish.
He began his life profoundly affected by the human misery he observed, and it guided him in his public service, together with a vision of the United States as exceptional — something he recognized in the story of his own life. At the conclusion of his Bates address he said:
The United States, unlike other nations, is not identified by common ethnic traits or cultural traditions. Instead, the United States, uniquely, is organized around an idea – principally a reverence for the inherent worth and the dignity of each human being.
We owe him a great debt of gratitude for a model of selfless service, emanating from small-town values and a large appreciation of his country, lived through an extraordinary career in which he worked until the last few weeks of his 86th year.
Warren Christopher
Warren Christopher, lawyer and secretary of state, died on March 18th, aged 85
The Economist
03/24/2011
.WHEN Warren Christopher became Bill Clinton’s first secretary of state, in January 1993, the world seemed relatively quiet. Three years before, the cold war had been declared over. The Middle East chuntered on, of course, and the Balkans smouldered. But, those apart, it seemed a time when America could ignore foreign wars in favour of building trade deals and perking up growth at home. The only conflict facing Mr Christopher was the daily tussle with the National Security Council and the Pentagon for the president’s ear, or the annual struggle to wring more money for the State Department out of Congress. It seemed to be a job a lawyer could do.
And a lawyer was what he was. Whenever America needed him he was plucked from the glassy corridors of O’Melveny & Myers, the most venerable international law firm in Los Angeles, and set down in Jerusalem, or Belgrade, or Beijing, with his solemnity and tailoring undamaged. In the shambolic early weeks of the Clinton administration he was a reassuring figure, older, tidier and palpably wiser than the cocky young baby-boomers then overrunning the White House.
He had come up through the attorney-general’s office under Lyndon Johnson, where his tenacity had recommended him: a dogged, uncomplaining appetite for tedious sorts of work. The heavy eyelids often seemed to sink, lizard-like, over the eyes as Mr Christopher sat at the diplomatic table for the umpteenth time. But doggedness could bring success. For months in 1980, as Jimmy Carter’s deputy secretary of state, he had negotiated the release of 52 Americans held hostage in Iran. The Pentagon sent rescue helicopters that crashed in flames in the desert. But Mr Christopher took the patient route, struggling back and forth to Algeria to talk to “bazaar” Iranians until he closed the deal.
For Mr Clinton he did the same, acquiring thousands of air miles and several ulcers to negotiate new trade structures—NAFTA, APEC, GATT—and to exercise his mediation skills on quarrellers abroad. The Oslo accords between Israel and the Palestinians, the 1995 Dayton accords that ended the Bosnian war, NATO’s Partnership for Peace, all came on his watch. He took little credit for them, shrinking away from “the concept of pride” to seek the shade. In Bosnia, where Richard Holbrooke as chief negotiator was all explosions, bullying and chaotic charm, Mr Christopher remained the man in the perfect suit, ever the hired help from O’Melveny & Myers, to which he would quietly return as “Chris” each time his stint at Foggy Bottom was over.
His word for his role was “steward”. Unassumingly, he often wondered why he had been asked to do it. Those who liked their foreign policy with a strong dash of vision and passion wondered, too. They condemned him as drifting and uninspiring. Within a year of his appointment to State, The Economist was wishing he would go; “Plodding, nodding” moaned Lexington three years later. But there was steel inside him, which showed to better effect at home. He pressed for Al Gore as Mr Clinton’s running-mate, a shrewd choice. And after the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles in 1992 he firmly took on Daryl Gates and the whole city police department, forcing reforms on them.
The rough and the smooth
Unlike most of the Clintonistas he had seen war up close, observing the desperate, aimless crowds in ruined Japan as a naval ensign in 1945. He concluded that talking to the other side, no matter how slow, was “the only way”. Sprawling sores like the meltdown in Somalia or the conflict in Rwanda were to be scrupulously avoided, and Bosnia tiptoed round for months with pettifogging excuses. On the other hand, he approved of the “careful” use of force if necessary. Eventually he and Holbrooke took the lead on Bosnia, demanding air strikes to protect the Bosnian Muslims while Europe demurred. And after Iraqi intelligence agents tried to kill George Bush senior in Kuwait in 1993 Mr Christopher endorsed missile strikes on their headquarters, an eerie precursor of later wars.
He cried when the hostages came out of Iran, a rare moment of open emotion. Their release, moving in itself, had also come too late to save Mr Carter’s presidency. Two decades later he failed to save another, when he organised Mr Gore’s challenge to George Bush junior after the 2000 election. Mr Christopher was a confirmed Democrat, his convictions formed in rural North Dakota in the Depression as he watched his father deal with farmers’ foreclosures. Yet he liked to be liberal “in a conservative way”. In the aftermath of race riots in Detroit and Los Angeles in the 1960s and later he gave voice to radical pleas—for jobs, education, compassion—in the calm, unexcitable tones of a bureaucrat.
This was one of several paradoxes about him. He was a dour North Dakotan, but considered himself a Californian; he jogged, and had a beach house in Santa Barbara, but was also given a Theodore Roosevelt Rough Rider award by North Dakota’s governor. Few men looked less like a Rough Rider than Mr Christopher as he clasped his prize, his handkerchief neatly in his top pocket. Few men so symbolised an era of cautious negotiation, rather than bold intervention. But perhaps few, with such a taste for plodding, got further.
Warren Christopher shrewdly guided U.S. policy
Alex Alben
Special to The Seattle Times
03/25/2011
Last week, Warren Christopher passed away at the age of 85. He led a distinguished career both in domestic and foreign service, culminating in his work as secretary of state during President Bill Clinton's first term.
Throughout his career, Christopher worked to build a regime of arms-control agreements that would stabilize the nuclear balance between the Soviet Union and the Western nuclear powers. For three decades, before abrogation by the second Bush administration, the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty prevented the two major nuclear powers from creating missile defenses that would change the risk calculus for using the bomb. Dominant offensive missiles, bombers and long-range submarines underlined the doctrine that neither side could survive an exchange of atomic bombs, heightening the incentive that they would never be used. Today, these agreements are in flux as the world struggles to find a new balance of power.
Those who questioned the morality of the "Mutual Assured Destruction" theory breathed more easily when the Soviet Union collapsed in the 1990s and the "Doomsday Clock" of the Cold War was reset. Political scientists now theorize that the world is in a "multipolar" balance of power, but that term is only an intellectual Band-Aid stretched to cover the reality that the nuclear threat has moved from state actors, such as the old Soviet Union, to nonstate actors and radical regimes.
Condoleezza Rice famously announced in 2002 that the U.S. would strike first in a nuclear conflict if we perceived a serious threat, making the case for pre-emptive wars, such as the 8-year old debacle in Iraq and a war in Afghanistan that no longer is justified by the toll in American lives and increasingly murky goals.
No political expert would have dreamed 20 years ago that the Arab League would invite strikes by France, Britain and the U.S. against an Arab dictator bent on wiping out a popular uprising by his opponents — a scenario unfolding before our eyes in Libya. The world has moved from two-power dominance, to regional balances of power, to odd temporary coalitions specific to local hot spots. In this context, where the old theories no longer fit the facts, a return to first principles would help us navigate the choppy waters of international diplomacy.
This week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton paid tribute to Christopher, saying that in times of crisis she asks herself, "What would Warren do?"
President Obama outlined a human-rights agenda in his Cairo Speech in 2009, inspiring millions in the Arab world. Yet a doctrine based primarily on human rights runs into the practical problems of when the use of force is truly in America's strategic interest.
How terribly does a dictator have to behave before we risk American lives to bring him down? How severe an ethnic conflict before we intervene in the name of the safety of innocents? If the military situation in Libya reaches a stalemate, for example, does the strategic interest of the U.S. dictate that we arm anti-Gadhafi rebels and provide them with logistical support with no clear timetable or exit strategy?
These questions mark the new frontier of American diplomacy in a world that is marked both by the rise of China as a global power and the prospect of ideological agents obtaining lethal weapons.
Warren Christopher's wise guidance across this new landscape will be missed, because this new world calls for acumen, sharp diplomacy and the ability to identify our core national interests.
Opinion: Death of quiet American diplomat
Tom Plate
The Korea Times
03/26/2011
LOS ANGELES ― He will certainly not be remembered for any grand theories of international relations, and his speeches were generally not memorable. But as U.S. secretary of state, he served President Bill Clinton during his first four years in the White House as well as he could, and his country over the course of decades in diplomacy basically as well as anyone could.
Warren Christopher, who died last weekend at 85 here in Los Angeles, at home with his family, was a man who brought immense decency and an almost objective fairness in his dealings with all. Not everyone in public life can claim that distinction, and few, if any, would dispute that he had that special quality.
As a journalist who would seek out his insights, I would be hard put to say that they were often scintillating. But his views were invariably helpful, and always honest. And he was sometimes more farseeing than people knew. As a once-Los Angeles Times staffer launching a column about Asia and America, I took missionary encouragement from his sense that American foreign policy was unbalanced.
For Christopher, as secretary of state, felt, as many did (and do) here on the West Coast of America, that the East Coast foreign policy establishment had its head screwed too hard toward Europe and the Middle East, to the unfortunate de-emphasis of Asia, the obviously growing giant.
Even in the exalted position of secretary, Chris, as almost everyone who knew him called him, could do little himself to uproot that wrong-headed policy orientation. And Asia itself never quite knew what to make of this superficially bland man who came from Los Angeles. But the truth was he was more of an Asian soul mate than anyone realized.
His working relationship with some Asian foreign ministers and secretaries were invariably good and cordial, but with a few they were quite special. Surely at the top of that list was Qian Qichen, the legendary foreign minister of China from 1988-98.
To Christopher, this unusual Chinese government official, who went on to become vice premier of PRC State Council, was the diplomat’s diplomat. One night before I was to fly to Beijing for an interview with China’s foreign minister, Christopher telephoned to say something like this.
“Tom, you are a fortunate man to get an interview with Qian Qichen. Despite all the differences between China and America, he is a man you can deal with. He is a man who likes to get things done, without fuss. You will enjoy your session.”
And I did, indeed. But looking back now, I think of Chris’s line about China’s FM as a man who likes to get things done without fuss as a near-precise definition of this quiet American diplomat himself.
Christopher never received much recognition, much less a Nobel Peace Prize, for all that he did. But just look at the record: he was a master negotiator. He helped end the horrific civil war in the former Yugoslavia, painstakingly negotiated the Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestinians, and kept fighting the good fight to give democracy a chance in Haiti.
Back in the administration of Jimmy Carter, he bravely worked to help bring about the release of the American hostages in Iran. I once asked former President Carter for an assessment of his former deputy secretary of state. He quickly looked me in the eye and said, with a bit of Georgian twang: “Chris, I would trust with my life.”
Taking credit for achievements was not in his DNA. Posturing was not his thing; getting results was. I once asked him when he was still secretary of state why he so rarely appeared on American television. He flashed that gooey loose-faced smile and said simply: “I try to let Madeleine [Albright, to succeed him in Clinton’s second term] handle that, she’s so much better than I.” He was right about that. But history may well show that he was the better secretary of state.
In his last years Chris continued to do good work as a public figure, especially as the behind-the-scenes guru of the Pacific Council on International Policy. But he never neglected his loyalty to colleagues at O’Melveny & Myers, the international law firm that never ceases to remind people that it was one of the first American firms to open an office in Beijing.
Chris, who in 1958 was made a partner at the age of 33, never took credit for that decision. But I think it was one of those deeply quiet accomplishments about which he took very great pride. Like most of us here on the West Coast, he knew in which direction the future lies. He always knew which way was up. And he rarely let anyone down, especially his country.
American journalist Tom Plate, distinguished scholar of Asian and Pacific affairs at Loyola Marymount University, is the author of the Giants of Asia series, which includes “Conversations with Mahathir Mohamad” and “Conversations With Lee Kuan Yew.” He can be reached at
platecolumn@gmail.com.
Former Secretary Warren Christopher a “Resolute Pursuer of Peace”
Stephen Kaufman
America.gov
03/24/2011
Former President Clinton said Warren Christopher's humility "made him easy to underestimate" and praised his many accomplishments as a public servant
Washington — President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton mourned the death of former Secretary of State Warren Christopher, whose career highlights included negotiating an end to the war in Bosnia in 1995 and the freeing of American hostages who were held in Iran from 1979 to 1981.
Christopher, who served as former President Clinton’s secretary of state from 1993 to 1996, died March 19 in Los Angeles as the result of complications from bladder and kidney cancer. He was 85.
In a March 19 statement, President Obama described him as “a skillful diplomat, a steadfast public servant, and a faithful American” who was “a resolute pursuer of peace.”
The president noted that Christopher’s career “ranged from the naval reserve in World War II to a clerkship at the Supreme Court to the practice of law and politics in California and Washington.” Obama praised the former secretary’s leadership of peace negotiations in the Middle East and the 1995 Dayton Agreement, which ended the war in Bosnia.
During his four-year tenure, Christopher reportedly logged more than 1,250,000 kilometers of travel outside the United States.
Christopher also served as deputy secretary of state from 1977 to 1981 during former President Carter’s administration. In that post, he negotiated the 1981 release of American hostages in Iran and the 1977 Torrijos-Carter treaties, which arranged for Panama to gain control of the Panama Canal after 1999.
In a March 19 statement, Secretary Clinton said Christopher’s talent, dedication and wisdom made him “a diplomat’s diplomat.”
“The longer I spend in this job, the deeper my appreciation grows for the giants who came before,” she said, adding, “As well as anyone in his generation, [Christopher] understood the subtle interplay of national interests, fundamental values and personal dynamics that drive diplomacy.”
She cited Christopher’s work to help establish U.S. diplomatic relations with China and expand the membership of NATO, as well as his tireless efforts to promote peace in the Middle East and human rights around the world.
“America is safer and the world is more peaceful because of his service,” she said.
A TRIBUTE FROM A FORMER PRESIDENT
Former President Clinton also issued a statement on March 24 in which he honored Christopher’s humility, a trait that caused some to overlook his many accomplishments as a public servant.
“Chris had the lowest ego-to-accomplishment ratio of any public servant I’ve ever worked with. That made him easy to underestimate. But all Americans should be grateful that he possessed the stamina, steel and judgment to accomplish things that were truly extraordinary,” Clinton said.
It was Christopher who headed Clinton’s vice-presidential search committee in 1992 and recommended then-Senator Al Gore as Clinton’s running mate. In the aftermath of the closely contested 2000 presidential election, Christopher led candidate Al Gore’s unsuccessful legal efforts in the U.S. Supreme Court to mandate a recount of ballots cast in the state of Florida.
Following Bill Clinton’s 1992 election victory, Christopher headed the presidential transition team. The former president wrote that Christopher, before becoming secretary of state, “oversaw the creation of the talented, dedicated and diverse group that, along with the Vice President, was crucial to the prosperity the U.S. enjoyed in the 1990s.”
The former president praised Christopher, saying that his “tireless efforts, keen judgment and old-fashioned patriotism helped the U.S. meet the challenges of the post–Cold War world.”
Warren Christopher on LA: "There's still a lot of work to be done"
Los Angeles Magazine
March 2011
Christopher, who passed away on March 18, spoke to Los Angeles recently about police work, race relations, and poverty in the city Warren Christopher, who died March 18 at age 85, was one of L.A.’s most respected elder statesmen. Christopher served as Lyndon Johnson’s deputy attorney general and Bill Clinton’s secretary of state. He won ratification of U.S. canal treaties with Panama, secured the release of American hostages from Iran, and brokered peace in the Balkans. After every foreign and domestic assignment, he returned to his beloved city, where he authored lasting reforms.
In 1965, Gov. Edmund G. “Pat” Brown asked him to create a bipartisan commission to analyze the causes of the Watts riot. Christopher chose former CIA Director John McCone to be its chairman. Christopher himself became vice chairman. The McCone Commission cited police procedures that it said contributed to distrust of authority. The commission members urged changes. Twenty-six years later, Mayor Tom Bradley chose Christopher to head a second panel, this time to investigate the police beating of Rodney King, which had caused another riot in Los Angeles. The Christopher Commission found that a large number of LAPD officers engaged in excessive force and condoned racism. Its members called for tougher police department disciplinary procedures, community policing, and the resignation of Chief Daryl Gates.
In an interview for
Los Angeles magazine’s 50 L.A. Stories (December 2010), Christopher spoke with Articles Editor Richard E. Meyer about police work, race relations, and poverty in the city. “There’s still a long way to go,” Christopher said. He expressed concern about the large economic disparity in Los Angeles between the rich and poor. From that interview, here is an excerpt that did not appear in the magazine:
Have L.A.’s reforms been sufficient? The time of the Watts riot was a very, very bad period, because law enforcement was still in the dark ages in dealing with minorities in the city. The riot began on a hot summer night in a confrontation with the police. It just roared on and on through the southern part of the city. Pat Brown was governor then, and I was helping him out, and he asked me to put together a commission that would look into it. In sort of the traditional way, I looked for the biggest name I could find to head the commission, somebody who would give it credibility, and John McCone, who had been head of the CIA, was that person. There were a lot of other prominent people on the commission. When Pat Brown announced the commission, without ever checking with me, he said I was the vice chairman. It was a time when the city needed a lot of healing, especially in law enforcement. That’s why I was glad to have another shot at it after Rodney King, because I didn’t think we had done as well as we should have with the McCone Commission. Out of the second commission came quite a few improvements in education, especially in the pre-school years. Martin Luther King Hospital came out of our recommendations. But there’s still a long way to go. There’s such a gap between the very wealthy in the city and those who are in deep poverty. The city recovered fairly rapidly – or I guess I should say the northern and western half of the city pretended it did not happen and marched ahead. So there’s still a lot of work to be done. Although I must say I’m pretty much gratified that police attitudes are so much better now. We’ve established, for example, a two-term limitation on chief of police and made civilian control by the police commission not just a matter of words on a page, but the actuality of civilian control.
So you’re satisfied? I think civilian control is good, and I think police attitudes are light years better than they were in 1965. But, you know, police work is very hard. It brings officers into contact on a day-to-day basis with not the nicest people in town, and some people it affects adversely. I think good police officers understand that. And people who don’t have the kind of chemistry that enables them to go about their job without getting brutal and vindictive about it should not stay on the force.
Warren Christopher Passes
Yussuf J. Simmonds
LA Sentinel
03-24-2011 Mayor Bradley called on him after the'92 Civil Unrest to lead the commission that sparked the LAPD reforms, which helped to produce the more community-responsive force that is in place today.
After the acquittal of the four police officers who were charged in the video-taped beating of Rodney King, a part of the Los Angeles community went up in flames. As a result, Mayor Tom Bradley called on former Secretary of State, attorney Warren Christopher to chair a panel to look into the causes of the civil unrest; it became known as the Christopher Commission.
Warren Christopher died peacefully at his home in Los Angeles last Friday of complications from kidney and bladder cancer, according to a family spokesman; he was 85.
Though he was a world renowned diplomat, locally Christopher is best remembered via his work on the commission that bore his named and its significance relative to reforms within the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD).
Charged by Mayor Bradley to examine the structure and operation of the LAPD in the aftermath of the King beating, the commission, led by Christopher, held community meetings and interviewed elected and public officials, and residents, and issued a report of it findings.
According to the report some of the findings were:
There are a significant number of officers in the LAPD who repetitively use excessive force against the public and persistently ignore the written guidelines of the department regarding force.
The failure to control these officers is a management issue that is at the heart of the problem. The documents and data that we have analyzed have all been available to the department; indeed, most of this information came from that source. The LAPD's failure to analyze and act upon these revealing data evidences a significant breakdown in the management and leadership of the Department. The Police Commission, lacking investigators or other resources, failed in its duty to monitor the Department in this sensitive use of force area. The Department not only failed to deal with the problem group of officers but it often rewarded them with positive evaluations and promotions.
We recommend a new standard of accountability....Ugly incidents will not diminish until ranking officers know they will be held responsible for what happens in their sector, whether or not they personally participate.
The commission highlighted the problem of "repeat offenders" on the force, finding that of approximately 1,800 officers against whom an allegation of excessive force or improper tactics was made from 1986 to 1990, more than 1,400 had only one or two allegations. But 183 officers had four or more allegations, forty-four had six or more, sixteen had eight or more, and one had sixteen such allegations. Generally, the forty-four officers with six complaints or more had received positive performance evaluations that failed to record "sustained" complaint or to discuss their significance.
That commission's report remains inexplicably connected to Christopher and is a part of his legacy to the city of Los Angeles. Attorney General Kamala Harris tapped Christopher to be a part of her transition team, and on his passing, she issued the following statement: "The death of Warren Christopher is a deep loss for California and for our nation. Warren was the epitome of a true public servant, an esteemed leader who possessed grace, intellect and wit. His passion for serving his country and his achievements in public service, were gifts to all of us. This is also a personal loss and I will miss his cherished friendship and counsel."
His work will live on locally, nationally, and internationally.
Warren Christopher's Legacy in Los Angeles
Frank Stoltze
The California Report (Southern California Radio)
03/27/2011
Link to SCR segment: http://www.californiareport.org/archive/R201103251630/c When former United States Secretary of State Warren Christopher died last week, most people focused on his foreign policy accomplishments: He secured freedom for the American hostages in Iran in 1980, and helped broker the Bosnian peace deal for the Clinton administration. But Christopher also played a quiet yet crucial role in Los Angeles.
Christopher is best known in LA for his work on the commission that bears his name.
Two decades ago, when LAPD officers beat motorist Rodney King, Mayor Tom Bradley needed somebody to lead an examination of a troubled police department that defied civilian control. The mayor turned to Christopher.
“He had more credibility, he was held in more esteem than any other single individual in Los Angeles for the bulk of my adult lifetime," County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said.Y aroslavksy was a City Councilman at the time.
But LAPD Chief Daryl Gates had chosen his own panel to investigate his department - one that consisted of his allies.
Christopher deftly merged Bradley’s panel with a rival one and surprised many observers by guiding the group to a unanimous call for sweeping reform - and the chief’s resignation.
Attorney John Spiegel, the chief counsel on what became known as the Christopher Commission, said the chairman won the fellow panelists over with the evidence and his demeanor.
“Many people who were that talented, that gifted and ambitious in the sense of wanting to be in the middle of things, have some rough edges to them," Spiegel said. "But Chris was just remarkable the way he was such a thoughtful, considerate, nice person to everybody.”
Christopher’s roots ran deep in LA. He moved to the city with his mother and four siblings in 1939 after his father died. He attended Hollywood High, the University of Redlands and USC, and returned after Stanford Law School to join the influential law firm of O’Melveny and Myers. Eventually he became its chairman.
In 1965, Gov. Pat Brown – the current governor’s father – appointed him to a panel that examined the causes of the Watts riots.
In the early 1990s, John Mack headed the Urban League’s LA chapter. He was a vocal police critic when Christopher examined the Rodney King beating.
“First of all, the thing that became so obvious, he had no personal agenda," Mack said. "He was a very humble man."
Some have said that Christopher-the-diplomat was a master tactician, but a man with no world view.
Mack, who worked with Christopher on several initiatives and became president of the Police Commission, regards him differently in LA.
“He was a progressive, visionary leader, make no mistake about it. He was clearly on the progressive side," Mack said.
Christopher simply went about his work quietly and cooperatively, Mack said. "He was a bridge builder, not a bomb thrower.”
The low-key Christopher mostly worked behind the scenes. Yaroslavsky recalls a meeting on reforming county government with the Civic Alliance, a group of leaders of which Christopher was a member.
“Christopher never said a word," Yaroslavsky said. "At the end of the meeting, he offered a couple of brief sentences and summed it up better than anybody, and kind of gave us our marching orders going forward."
"It was an amazing performance.”
Christopher offered advice to an array of LA political and business leaders, when he wasn’t globetrotting for the US government, O'Melveny law partner Joe Calabrese said.
“Chris just had great judgment and that was accumulated over many years," he said. "He also had an ability to be better prepared than just about anybody in the room on just about any topic.”
Calabrese, who called Christopher a “phenomenal listener," also remembers a caution from the very discreet counselor.
Christopher told Calabrese that whenever you are speaking in public, you should be careful with your words.
"And public to him was whenever he was not the only person in the room," he said.
When he did show up in public, Christopher impressed others with his sartorial flair: He fancied pocket squares crisply folded in the jackets of his tailored English suits.
“He changed the way I dressed," O'Melveny's Managing Partner Carla Christofferson said.
Beyond her threads, she said, Christopher taught her about the importance of civic engagement.
“He was always talking to me about how to get more involved," she said. "His phrase was, ‘Ya know I know my path isn’t the only path, but what are you going to do?'”
Christofferson did get involved: with Warren Christopher's help. She joined the Library Foundation Board; she owns the LA Sparks Women's Basketball team.
Christofferson said her civic work and that of others he mentored carries on his ethos that people with talent and wealth are obliged to share them.
Late Secretary of State Warren Christopher remembered at Disney Hall service
Frank Stoltze
Southern California Public Radio
03/29/2011 Click
HERE to listen to the radio segment.
Former Vice President Al Gore was among those who honored the late Secretary of State Warren Christopher at a memorial service at Disney Hall in downtown Los Angeles Monday. Gore called Christopher “one of the great statesmen of our era” and “an extraordinary man of integrity.”
In a testament to the wide respect for Christopher, secretaries of state Madeleine Albright, who served under President Clinton, and Condoleezza Rice, who served under President Bush, attended. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sent word she was forced to miss the service to attend an emergency meeting on Libya in London.
Christopher, who died March 18 of cancer, secured freedom for the American hostages in Iran during the Carter Administration and helped broker Bosnian peace.
Gore said it was Christopher who made promotion of human rights around the world American policy.
Strobe Talbott, who advised Christopher at the State Department, said he made a “substantial, enduring and underappreciated contribution to world peace.”
The chairman of O’Melveny and Myers A.B. Culvahouse, his voice cracking, called Christopher “the heart and soul” of the firm. Christopher was with O’Melveny for six decades, and served as its chair.
Culvahouse said his old friend was mostly circumspect and subtle in offering sage advice, but could be direct. “Chris once told me I was speaking more clearly than I was thinking,” Culvahouse said with a smile.
Former governors Gray Davis and Pete Wilson attended the service, as did LAPD Chief Charlie Beck. Christopher was instrumental in pushing for police reforms after the Rodney King beating.
Christopher’s four children also took the stage at the memorial, where a giant photo of their father was flanked by an American flag and burning long-stemmed candle.
“He was just our dad, and a really, really great dad,” Thomas Christopher said. He recalled great dinner talks and thoughtful walks on the beach in Santa Barbara.
“He loved us unconditionally,” he said, and was “the best advisor and confidant a kid could have.”
Recipients of the Christopher Scholarship also attended the memorial. The money goes to promising sophomores in high school whose families have little money. But it involves much more than money. Christopher made it a point to get to know each of the recipients and to personally encourage them.
“He told me he had great expectations,” Norma Sanchez said after the service. “And to work hard and to give back” to the community. She said she’d receive handwritten holiday notes from him and occasionally speak on the phone. He’d always ask about her family.
Sanchez, 30, is in medical school in part because of his help and advice.
When Anne Young Kim won a scholarship, she wondered “what is this former secretary of state doing near me?” She said she had many family challenges, and his encouragement “gave me belief in something beyond my circumstances.” Kim, who won the scholarship in 2002, now works with community health councils in L.A.
President Clinton, writing in Time Magazine this week, said “Chris had the lowest ego-to-accomplishment ratio of any public servant I’ve ever worked with. That made him easy to underestimate.”
None in the audience at his memorial seems to have made that mistake
Warren Christopher remembered at memorial service
The Associated Press
03/29/2011
The former secretary of state - who died March 18 at 85 - was hailed Monday as a master statesman who brought a steady hand to world trouble spots.
A former deputy at the State Department, Strobe Talbott, recalled at the service in Los Angeles that Christopher worked tirelessly to ensure the removal of nuclear weapons from Ukraine and cement the peace between Israel and Jordan.
With former Vice President Al Gore and other dignitaries looking on, Talbott said Christopher was "prepared to go the last mile" during his 1993-1996 tenure in the Clinton administration.
Christopher died from complications from bladder and kidney cancer.
Bill Clinton on Former Secretary of State Warren Christopher
Bill Clinton
TIME.com
03/24/2011
Warren Christopher, who died March 18 at 85, headed my vice-presidential search committee and recommended Al Gore. As the leader of my presidential transition team, he oversaw the creation of the talented, dedicated and diverse group that, along with the Vice President, was crucial to the prosperity the U.S. enjoyed in the 1990s. Then he became Secretary of State.
Chris had the lowest ego-to-accomplishment ratio of any public servant I've ever worked with. That made him easy to underestimate. But all Americans should be grateful that he possessed the stamina, steel and judgment to accomplish things that were truly extraordinary.
As our first post–Cold War Secretary of State, he faithfully and effectively advanced U.S. interests and values: ending the war in Bosnia and bringing about the Dayton Peace Agreement; relentlessly moving the Middle East peace process forward; reducing the nuclear threat on the Korean Peninsula; supporting security cooperation with Russia; expanding NATO; increasing our investments in Africa and partnerships with Asian nations; championing human rights; and alerting the public to the danger of global warming. Christopher's tireless efforts, keen judgment and old-fashioned patriotism helped the U.S. meet the challenges of the post–Cold War world. I was honored by his service and enriched by his friendship.
UCLA alumni remember their mentor, former Secretary of State Warren Christopher
Samantha Masunaga
UCLA Alumni News
03/30/2011 Warren Christopher, former U.S. secretary of state and visiting scholar at UCLA, died on March 18 from complications of bladder and kidney cancer. He was 85.
After a diplomatic career in three presidents’ administrations, Christopher called UCLA in 2002 in hopes of teaching an Honors Collegium class.
Drawn to the university honors program by the caliber of its students, Christopher made arrangements with G. Jennifer Wilson, assistant vice provost for the UCLA Honors Programs, to create a small, student-focused seminar that discussed international hot spots and possible policy solutions.
Students chose locations or world situations in which they were interested and then argued different aspects of the crisis.
Throughout the debate, Christopher allowed his students to lead the discussion, adding his own opinion only when conversation ceased.
“He was a gentle-speaking man,” Wilson said. “He never raised his voice.”
Because of his mild manner, students felt comfortable around the statesman, who insisted that his students call him Chris.
“He was so kind and warm … that it felt like you were just having a conversation with a really smart man,” said Michael Williams, a UCLA alumnus and current lawyer at Christopher’s firm, O’Melveny & Myers.
While students benefited from Christopher’s practical experience in diplomacy and his personal anecdotes about world leaders and situations, they also valued his lessons about values and public service.
“He was the living embodiment of Atticus Finch,” said Laura Perry, a UCLA alumna who currently works at O’Melveny & Myers, in reference to the deep-thinking, conscientious protagonist of “To Kill a Mockingbird.”
In this vein, Christopher opened each class with a discussion of current events from The New York Times, encouraging students to think about the various historical, geographical and cultural facets behind every policy decision.
Even after the seminar, Christopher continued to advise students, counseling them on graduate schools and internship opportunities, as well as writing numerous letters of recommendation.
Students spoke of his ability to see their strengths and weaknesses, of which they were unaware. Sometimes, this translated into new career paths, said Tim Schulz, a UCLA alumnus who discovered his passion for business technology rather than law through Christopher’s influence.
“I realized I wouldn’t be happy in law,” said Schulz, who now works for Google. “I don’t think I would be where I was today without his counsel.”
Christopher was born on Oct. 27, 1925, in Scranton, N.D. He came to California with his family in the late 1930s and graduated from Hollywood High School. At 16, he continued his education at the University of Redlands on a debate scholarship, though he later transferred to the University of Southern California, where he took part in the Naval Officer Program. After active naval service during World War II, Christopher attended Stanford Law School before being placed in an active clerkship with U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas.
In 1950, he joined the O’Melveny & Myers law firm in Century City, a corporation he would be involved with for the rest of his life. During his time at the firm, he was frequently called away to serve on a number of political administrations, including former Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Jimmy Carter. It was during the Carter administration that Christopher gained great recognition for his negotiations during the Iranian hostage crisis.
In 1993, he was tapped by former President Bill Clinton to serve as the 63rd secretary of state, and in this position, Christopher promoted the expansion of NATO and a 1994 peace treaty between Israel and Jordan. During his tenure, Christopher traveled more than 700,000 miles, setting a new record for the air mileage achieved in four years by any secretary of state.
After retirement from diplomacy, Christopher played a role in local politics and headed an investigation of the 1991 Rodney King incident. The ensuing commission, which gave a number of recommendations to the city of Los Angeles, was named after him.
Christopher is survived by his second wife Marie; four children Lynn, Scott, Thomas and Kristen; and five grandchildren. A memorial service was held Monday at the Walt Disney Concert Hall.
Christopher called man of faith, peace
Heather Hahn
United Methodist News Service
March 29, 2011
Warren M. Christopher, U.S. Secretary of State from Jan. 20, 1993, to Jan. 17, 1997. Photo courtesy U.S. Department of State. Over the past week, U.S. leaders have remembered former Secretary of State Warren Christopher for presidential service that stretched from the Johnson administration to his years in the Clinton cabinet.
What is less well-known is that Christopher was also a faithful United Methodist.
“The church really served as a backbone. It was the place where (he and his wife) worshipped, but what I think it became is foundational for his convictions of faith and how he lived it out in his life,” said the Rev. John Woodall, senior pastor of Westwood United Methodist Church in Los Angeles. Christopher was a member of the congregation for 10 years.
Woodall officiated at a March 28 memorial service for Christopher, who died March 18 at age 85 of complications from cancer. The service was held at Disney Hall in downtown Los Angeles to accommodate a larger crowd than the church sanctuary could hold.
Christopher’s family was adamant that he receive a United Methodist service that lifted up God. Woodall used the Beatitudes in Matthew 5:1-11 for his homily, saying that Jesus’ words helped define Christopher’s values.
“When people examine his record, they will see a real commitment to peacemaking,” Woodall told United Methodist News Service.
Emphasis on human rights
Christopher served as Clinton’s secretary of state for four years, ending January 1997. He also led then-candidate Clinton’s vice-presidential search committee that selected Al Gore.
At the service, the former vice president said Christopher had “a fierce commitment to principle and a brilliant mind.” The late secretary of state “insisted that human rights become a central pillar of (U.S.) foreign policy,” Gore said.
In a career packed with highlights, Christopher served in three presidential administrations, and as deputy secretary of state in the Carter administration, he helped secure the release of the U.S. hostages in Iran in 1980.
As the first post-Cold War secretary of state, he supported political reform in Russia, worked on the Middle East peace process and helped end the war in Bosnia.
After the 1992 riots in his longtime home of Los Angeles, Christopher led a commission that succeeded in getting police department reforms. He spent the latter part of his career as a senior partner in O'Melveny & Myers, a prominent Los Angeles law firm.
Living his faith
Christopher also was a frequent presence in Westwood’s pews, Woodall said. He once led an adult forum at the church, though he chose to remain on the sidelines of many congregational activities. Instead, Christopher lived out his faith on the world stage, Woodall said.
“The joke around here was that if you didn’t see him at church on Sunday, you read about where (the Christophers) were in the newspaper.”
Along with his work to promote peace, Christopher told The Associated Press that his proudest accomplishments included playing a role in promoting a ban on nuclear-weapons tests and curbing proliferation of weapons technology.
“He was truly a man of faith and has chosen to live it out in the way we preach,” Woodall said. “If we are taking seriously Jesus’ commandment to love God with our whole being and love neighbor as ourselves, that’s what he really dedicated himself to.”
Christopher is survived by his wife, Marie; four children from two marriages, Lynn, Scott, Thomas and Kristen; and five grandchildren.
The Vision That Changed American Policing
Merrick Bobb and John Spiegel
Daily Journal
04/01/2011
We have lost a great voice for human rights and decency; a voice that spoke to us
always in dignified, intelligent, measured, and eloquent tones. Among so many things,
Warren M. Christopher's death reminds us that 20 years have passed since the
Christopher Commission, created by Mayor Tom Bradley on the heels of the Rodney
King incident, issued its report. In addition to prompting a sweeping overhaul of the
Los Angeles Police Department, the report has become the essence of police best
practice and the starting point for all serious discussions of police reform. Of all the
different ways in which he made the world a better place, Christopher's work in helping
to bring fairness, effectiveness, and proportionality to policing in America will be
among his most enduring legacies.
Christopher's vision for American policing began with key observations about the
King incident and led ultimately to a collection of first principles or guiding rules for
effective law enforcement, including these propositions:
It is possible, without compromising the safety of police officers or the public at
large, to manage the risk of police error and misconduct, thereby diminishing excessive
force, corruption, biased policing, and unnecessary police shootings.
The police have an affirmative obligation to ensure constitutional policing and to
ferret out those few police officers unwilling to police in that manner.
The police must operate under vigilant, purposeful, responsible, confident, and wellinformed
civilian oversight to which the chief of police is accountable, whether it be in
the form of a police commission and inspector general, as in Los Angeles, a review
board, or an appointed monitor. A proper balance must be struck so that the chief of
police is neither given carte blanche nor micromanaged; neither given life tenure nor
fired on a political whim.
If police are permitted to police themselves and to investigate fellow officers, they
must understand and agree that it is a privilege, not a right.
The process for resolving personnel complaints, whether generated internally or
externally, must be transparent, fair, thorough, and complete. Every complaint
deserves some form of investigation and principled resolution.
Police officers are accountable to all their constituent communities, be they of color
or not, be they wealthy or not. The police must acknowledge and take responsibility for
the fact that certain constituent communities have been victimized in the past by
instances of harsh and unconstitutional policing. These communities must be made to
feel that those days are over and that the police are now committed to protect all and
serve all, the core of community-based policing.
A Police Department should be broadly diverse, both at the rank-and-file and
command levels. In a multicultural environment, the police themselves must reflect
and give voice to all of its constituencies.
Policing is a profession, not unlike medicine, law, or any other principled and learned
discipline. The police are not judges, jurors, nor surrogates for those charged with
meting out punishment. Their job - their only job - is to protect and serve and to bring
those who violate the law to the bar of justice calmly, purposefully, intelligently, and
constitutionally.
With Warren Christopher's passing, we have lost an authentic American hero. One is
reminded of W.H. Auden's poetic observation, "For every day they die among us / those
who were doing us some good / who knew it was never enough / but hoped to improve
a little by living."
John Spiegel is a former general counsel to the Christopher Commission. Merrick
Bobb is a former deputy general counsel to the Christopher Commission.
Warren Christopher
CBNWeekly
04/03/2011
On March 18th, former US Secretary of State Warren Christopher died at age 85. The Christopher family said in a statement that Christopher peacefully died of complications of kidney and bladder cancer. Christopher was the Secretary of State from 1993 until 1997. In 1995, he facilitated the Dayton Agreement, which brought a full stop to the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Christopher also made contributions to the normalization of US-China relations.